12 months went by so fast!

Well that was a pretty wild year. Karin is now a one year old, complete with 10 teeth and a budding vocabulary. She says things like "mum-mum" or "num-num" when I am near, or when there is food around. She's getting faster. Teeth coming through left right and centre (she has cut 3 molars in the last 3 weeks), and we've officially started her on teething tablets (they were awesome for Chance too). Our friends who have a daughter the same age is saying her sister's name and "duh-down" when she tumbles ("fall down"), so we might be on the cusp of starting to speak soon too!

Karin is One Year Old!

Opening birthday presents!

Happiness is a balloon in each hand!

Excited to be a big girl!

Carrot cake decorated with pink hearts and blueberries. Chance helped! Karin reached for the burning candle but Mom was quick to blow it out before she got to it!

The delicious aftermath. Cake 0, Karin 1.

Very. Busy.

Work is going well. Kids are healthy. Karin teething. Chance asking 1,000,000 questions a day and improving his negotiating skills. This post was made from the passenger seat of the truck heading home!

Belated December Picture

Karin's only 10 days away from turning 1 year old. I didn't get around to composing the 11 month photo in with the rest until just now. Her messy hair looks funny now that she's had a haircut. Hopefully January's photo will be more carefully organized -- tsk tsk, Baby is wearing nearly the same outfit 2 months in a row, what a fashion faux pas!

First post of 2011

So here we are in 2011. It wasn't the healthiest end to 2010 as the flu bug hit hard and it feels like Cam and I are just coming up to feeling normal now. Returning to work has gone well. I had hoped to get through the first week without a sick day however Karin was evicted from daycare on Thursday afternoon for puking. When I picked her up she was happily polishing off a bowl of applesauce. No fever, zero irritability. I put her to sleep and she woke up happy to be home, ate a huge supper. She slept through the night despite having worked out of her pj's again. It is so comical to put her to sleep wearing her jammies and sleep sack and to find her wearing only a diaper in the morning. One of these days she will have managed to rip the diaper off too, I'm sure.


Posted on my iPad.

Christmas Day

This one is from Santa to Chance!

Special gift from Chance's Ontario Aunties.

Karin's first Christmas - Santa brought her baby sized cereal bars and a toque!

Christmas dress and new haircut.

Chance woke up at 6 AM. He opened his door..."CLICK!" (his door has magnets on it rather than the usual door knobs because he has French doors on his bedroom). He popped his head out into the hallway and listened...no one was awake. So he went back into his bedroom and closed the door... "CLICK!!". 10 minutes later, his curiosity peaked again. "CLICK!.....CLICK!". Another 10 minutes later, he could bear it no more and opened his door again, only this time Cam and I were asleep and didn't hear the "CLICK!" and instead only hear the "thump thump thump thump" of him jumping up and down. I rolled over and poked Cam and said maybe we should just get up, he's doing laps in his bedroom...and then 2 inches from my ear Chance piped up "NO I'm right here! Mom, Santa was here and he left two presents!!" Just about jumped out of my skin!

We made him eat a bowl of Cheerios before tackling his Santa gift and stocking. He was pretty impressed that Santa brought him a Megatron Transformer just like he asked. It kept him busy enough until Karin got up around 9. We got her fed and then got her opening gifts too -- she had a great time ripping paper. Santa brought her a bowling pin set...she spent the whole morning running around the house with a pin in each hand and screaming "OOOOOOO!!!"

We spent most of the day in our jammies. Chance finally had enough somewhere around noon or 1 and got dressed, but I think the rest of us took a few more hours.

THANK YOU everyone for the lovely Christmas gifts and warm wishes.

Everyone seemed to be feeling healthy on Christmas day and that was my highlight. I had been so worried that the kids would come down with the rotten flu that Cam and I had earlier in the week.

We had a ham supper with scalloped potatoes (new food processor sliced 6 spuds in 0.3 seconds) and corn. No room for dessert so the blueberry tarts I made went into the fridge for another night. We stayed up late with Chance and watched his new movie, Toy Story 3.

Merry Christmas to all!

Well, it will be in a few hours here. I still haven't gotten rid of my bad habit of getting up in the night.

This morning Chance and I took Karin for her first haircut. At first we just gave her bangs and trimmed her ends but she looked like she had a mullet, so then we asked to have it all lopped off to be a cute little girlie bob. Photos to come!

We had a very simple Christmas Eve compared to ones in the past, which we have usually had a lobster supper. Tonight Cam and I are recuperating from the flu (touch wood so far the kids haven't caught it) so we stuck with beef barley soup and a tomato salad with balsamic vinegar. Chance and Karin ate well, then Karin demolished an Oreo cookie while Chance hacked into his recently completed gingerbread house. We bathed the kids (Chance showered....a "big" kid thing lately), and then snuggled together on the couch and enjoyed Mickey's Christmas Carol. Karin went to bed at 7:30 or so and we finished the cartoons and then left snacks for Santa and his reindeer. Chance then went to bed at 8:30. We heard him get up once...but he never got out of his bedroom: "Thump. Thump thump thump thump....thump thump thump thump....whump!" He must have remembered 1 step from his door that Santa doesn't come if you're not asleep! Tomorrow is likely going to be an early start as he is VERY excited about opening gifts.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Christmas!