January 2009 Blog

Monday Jan 26th

No too much to update. It's cold. We've been having a lot of playdates with other kids. But that's about it. The girls seem really content to play at home right now and have been painting and doing crafts alot, puzzles and dancing, and imaging things with their toys. They've learned some new poems like "I'm a little teapot". Piper has asked me how to spell "pee" with the fridge magnets. We picked up a small 2 octave kids keyboard that has all kind of sound effects and can record short tunes. Rain like to parade around the house while playing it. Some more pictures..

The girls dancing

Piper warming up her blanket by the vent

Some silly fun with a light stick

Monday Jan 19th

Piper had me laughing all day when we were out the other day in the car during one of those super cold spells. She says' to me, "Mommy I got fire in my mouth." At first I was confused as to what she meant until she exhaled and her breath was visible in the frigid air. Fire in the mouth...aka...it's a really cold day and I can see my breath.

Piper has also fallen in love with temporary tattoos. Right now all we have are Curious George tattoo's but she loves to get them on her legs and arms.

Piper had her first bloody lip (Gosh Rain has already had dozens) when Daddy accidentally elbowed her in the mouth after reading her a book in bed. He had turned away to put the book down and she sat up next to him just in time for him to turn back. Whammo....Arrrhhhhhh! She was a good trooper though.

We played ball hockey in the driveway the other day too (when it was really cold). Rain was totally into it for a short moment and was hitting the ball back to Daddy. Piper prefered to hang out in the net but wasn't too interested in doing anything else. Both the girls lost interest when they dsicovered they could use their hockey sticks to chop away at the snow banks lining the sides of the driveway.

I'm not sure if I've blogged about one of their favorite word combinations or not, but here's a reminder if I have. They love to shout "Gecko....Skink!" whenever we are in any area where they can shout, like in a high ceiling grocery store or off the front porch down the lengths of the street. I think they got the word "gecko" confused with my explanation of "Echo". And they have a book that has all kind of lizards in it and the two they seem to learn first were the Gecko and the Skink. However, the plot thickens when they have reached the age where the word "Poo" had become fun. So now they like to shout "Gecko...Skink...Poo!" to which Daddy always replies. "Poo? You can't say poo." This always has them in stitches.

We have a new fridge toy that has letters which you can combine to form three letter words. Rain has already learned how to spell "Cat", "Dog" and "Mom". Not bad eh? I'm always amazed too that both girls recognize the word Canada.

The girls have also become entralled with having Nana play piano and sing them Sharon, Lois and Bram songs. They are leanring all kinds of songs and the action that go along with them. They come home after spending the day with Nana and Opa and always have some new song or poem they act out. Today they showed me they could do "I'm a Little Teapot."

We got some new puzzels and games for Christmas and a new playset including a firehall, police station and doctor's office, a bunch of vehicles and people all which sit on a map of a small village. We've been rescuing cats out of trees with the firetruck, giving checkups to most of the villagers at the doctor's office and staging a Santa Claus parade where all the people line up along the sides of the roads and watch the various rescue vehicles drive around town.

We started using scissors (just the crazy edged scrapbooking scissors) and glue. It's fun for them to try new tools beyond markers, stamps and stickers. Using the different edged scissors we've been making them ribbons which they get to decorate and we write whatever activity they have been doing weel that day. Piper had one on the other day that said "Good Potty" since she had underwear on all day without having any accidents. Rain had one on that said "Good Singing" since she's always humming a song. Below are the pictures of their ribbons.

Rain with her "Good Singing" ribbon (It' says Potty there too since she has started using the potty too.)



Piper with her "Good Potty" ribbon



Rain heading out shopping with her hat and handbag

Wednesday Jan 14th

We are all better...all of us. And things have returned to normal..well...relatively.

We've had more snow...which is great for toboggoning. We took the girls to a hill and went down quite a few times. Rain was scared to go but once on the way down the hill she loved it. Then she told me she liked tobogonning but when I asked her if she wanted to go again she said no and ran off scared. Piper liked it a lot.

We also built a snow man in the backyard who Piper calls Mr. Grandpa. I guess she thought it looked like Grandpa because we put a moustache on him. We got out the spray bottles and food colouring and painted him red, green and blue.

Piper's new word is "beautiful" which she uses many times in they day...when I bring her a plate of food she likes, when she sees a new toy, when she see's something like a dress or necklace.

Tonight they've been running full tilt thought the house singing "Run run as fast as you can you can't catch me I'm the gingerbreadman." I have no idea who taught then that one.

Blowing bubbles in chocolate milk is a new favourite too. Rain likes to blow the bubbles up and nearly over the cup lip...and then eat the bubbles as fast as she can.

We played pretend store the other day too. Krista (Sasha's Mom) layed out all kind of dressup jewlery on a table. I gave each of the girls some pennies and a bag to put them in and then they went to the "store" and bought jewlery. They bought quite a bit. Piper even bought me a necklace.

The store with it's wares...



Just a few fun photos. Notice Rain is in a pillow case.



Piper notices this and then piles on more pillows and sits on top.

Jan 8th, 2009 - Happy New Year

It's been an interesting start to the New Year. The girls are sick. Daddy is sick too. They've all caught a pretty nasty cold that is going around. Everyone has been to the walk in clinic. Fevers, bad coughs and runny noses have made the days and night a bit difficult for all. Mommy has been sleeping most nights in with Rain to keep her comfortable. Piper was wonderful at the doctor's and was completely co-operative, even excited! Rain was must more apprehensive but much better than she was last time we had to go. Afterwards, in true Rain fashion, she talked non stop about the doctor looking in her ears, taking her temperature and listening to her heart with the stethascope. When you ask Piper if she's sick she says "I'm not sick, I'm happy." We're all on the mend though. Yay!

Since they've been sick we've bene having a lot of TV time. They are in love with Madeline. We now have several DVD's which they watch daily and re-enact with each other when we are not watching them. I caught them arguing one day with each other saying "Mais Oui!"..."Mais Non!". They have picked up several other french phrases too.They also know by sight the Mona Lisa, and the Eiffel Tour. It's really cute when they start reciting lines from the show and acting them out. "We love our bread, we love our butter, but most of all, we love each other." One day they asked me to draw scars on them. In the orginal Madeline she has her appendix out and sings a song called "Voila My Scar" whic both girls love to sing.

We baked some cupcakes the other day with Sasha. It was fun...three toddlers in the kitchen all trying to mix and each batter. Messy business.

We have also tried more painting, as well as glueing and stamping. Below are some of the results.



Piper - paint, macaroni, stickers, stamps and sparkles



Rain - paint, macaroni, stickers, stamps and sparkles



Mommy and the girls all painted this one. The right handprints are Pipers, the left ones are Rain's.



TOGA TOGA TOGA!!!! Senator Blanket is in the Forum!!



Mmmm.....cupcake batter!



Voila Piper's scar



Voila Rain scar



Piper sleeping in her Team Canada jersey. GO Juniors!



Rain with styrofaom packing on her head



Rain wearing the humidifier lid on her head. (Yes our humidifier looks like s frog.)