Half year update...

Well, we have been a little delinquent in keeping up to date for the past several weeks. There certainely has not been a lack of activity, perhaps just lack of time.

Jaida is 6 months today! Wow, how time flies. At her check-up on friday she weighed in at 13 lbs 8 ounces and 25 inches. That is about 8.5 pounds and 8 inches larger than birth. She is doing great! She ate her first food today!! Oatmeal cereal.




She seems to really enjoy it, even whimpered when I took a little break from feeding!

Natasha is 2 and a half now. She is so silly and fun. Apart from night time, where we are really close, she is out of diapers.



She is doing great! Not a single pull up used, and knock on wood, no accidents outside of the house! She is still a little shy of letting non parents know when she needs to use the facilities, instead she holds it, and cries!! We are working on that, but at least she holds it! She has managed to keep her night time cloth diaper dry most of the time, we are working on getting 5 nights in a row. For now, we have been checking out all the public washrooms, even if, for just a drop of pee!! :)

Maya is almost 4 and a half. She is loving school. On a recent trip to Lake Placid, (More on that in another post) we were going for a little hike in the woods. She took my hand and said "Amma, I really miss my friends at school. Do you think they miss me too?" It was only Saturday, and we'd left home on Friday!! She did have a great time on our trip, but was very happy to get back to school and tell all her friends of our close encounter with a snake!!

Maya had her first ballet-jazz dance recital. It was really cute, and if I must say, apart from the really tiny kids who were absolutely adorable, her class had the best performance! Crazy parents would just about sum up that whole experience for me. With 3 girls, I wonder how many more years of this we will have?

As you can see the girls are doing great, keeping us on our toes. They are truly amazing, they bring so much joy and laughter into our home.

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

Wherever I go, with my three girls in tow, people are constantly telling me two things: how beautiful my children are ("Yes they are, thank you, they look just like their father don’t you think?"); and, how I must have my hands full. And when I say constantly, I mean to the point of being annoying. I had to make new plans after story time at the library. Usually, we go to the nearby mall and have our lunch in the food court. But this mall seems to be very senior heavy at that time of day. I realize you’re probably lonely, but if you think my hands are so full, why are you interrupting our lunch to tell me about your grandkids?

Anyway, my hands can’t be that full since I’m usually able to hold a cup of coffee in one of them. Why is that? Well, I’ve been to grocery stores, play groups, the library, food stops, and numerous coffee shops, and I’m convinced that I have the best behaved children in the history of children, seriously. When we’re out, if I ask them to do something, they do it. They make it that easy for me. Notice that I said, "When we’re out", at home it’s sometimes a different story.

Less laundry and less garbage...

Since Jaida was born, it seems as though we are constantly washing, drying or folding diapers, on top of that the amount of disposables, though we don't use that many, makes up the majority of our weekly garbage.

So, last week we decided that Natasha would be done with diapers (during the day). We made a considerable big deal about it all week, colored in the calendar so she knew the day was coming. I also laid out 12 pairs of underwear, hoping it might last her 2 days, and made sure I had lots of clean clothes.

Friday morning came, she herself said "No more diapers for me!" So, that was that, she is done.

She did have many accidents on friday, but since then she has been really good. We took a trip to the bathroom every 15-30 minutes, and by Sunday afternoon she was pretty good at letting us know when she had to go. She still has some work to do in the #2 dept, but yesterday she was almost accident free there as well.

Natasha continues to impress us...we went out for dinner last night, (to and Indian restaurant...yummm) In the 3 hours we were out, we made at least 6 trips to the bathroom, mostly on her request, and she did manage to get a trickle out each time, and each time coming out of the bathroom saying very loudly "I pee'd on the toilet!!" The last time she came out running, and almost yelling "I had a BIG poop!!!"

So now, we have saved ourselves a couple of loads of diapers a week, though I am sure there will be more of her clothes to wash for the next several months. As of last night, I still had 6 pairs of clean underwear!!

We will tackle night time once she gets comfortable during the day, but for now during the day, as Natasha says "NO MORE DIAPERS!!!"