Elise has been a trooper lately. She has given up a lot of things: her crib, diapers, the high chair, sippy cups, baby toys, and even plastic spoons and forks. Most of these things have been to make room for Tori. We have been encouraging her to embrace all of these changes by celebrating that she is now a big girl! She has a big girl bed, big girl underwear, and a big girl chair. Yesterday she caught on to the fact that her big girl chair looks a lot like her daddy's chair. She climbed up to the table and said "Elise's big girl chair" pointed at Daddy's chair and said "Daddy's big girl chair" then pointed at my chair and, which is also identical to Her's, and said "mommy's car seat." funny girl! She loves growing up, she loves her sister, and she really loves chocolate.
When we adopted Koda from the Moose Jaw Humaine Society 4 years ago we were told that she was a little bit food crazy and that she would devour her food at lightning pace. We were surprised when we brought her home to discover that we could leave her food bowl full and she would just slowly graze, only eating about 1 1/2 cups of food a day at the most. It was when we got Jack that we discovered that Koda isn't food crazy, just very very competitive. We buy dog food in as big of bags as we can find and keep it locked in a kennel in the basement because Jack will eat anything and everything he can access, including the apples on the tree in the back yard and a nice juicy steak off the table if nobody is looking. Jack has always been the one getting in trouble when it comes to food... until yesterday. I, in somewhat of a sleep deprived state managed to leave the food kennel open yesterday morning. When Josh got up a little bit later he discovered Koda, crouched down, half in the kennel, feasting as quickly and eagerly as she could. Jack was sitting nearby, watching silently, patiently waiting for his turn (which never came.) By that time Koda had devoured 1/4 of a bag of food. She was full, and lazy, and really not excited to do much of anything other than sleep. Elise, who almost always feeds her leftovers to Jack decided that yesterday was the day Koda needed to eat some Rice Krispies. We watched in amusement at she force fed Koda one Rice Krispie at a time. Koda's back to normal today but Yesterday was sure a lazy one! Thank you to everyone who voted for Tori to win free diapers for a year. We didn't win but it never hurts to try! I think they are crazy for not choosing her. She is just so sweet! Here she is all dolled up in a new dress and some of her sister's pretty things. She is just as shocked as I am that she didn't win! We had a short but lovely visit with Goga and Papa this week! Elise soaked up every minute of it. She especially enjoyed having fresh faces to tuck her in at night. Goga and Papa are more easily duped into one more story, one more trip to the potty, and one more kiss goodnight than mom and dad are! She was very excited to receive a new table and a few other goodies for a birthday present! We are also very appreciative of papa's handy dandy painting and wallpapering skills! The painting is finished and the first piece of wallpaper is hung. Josh and I have never wallpapered before so it was a much needed lesson for Josh who will teach me later. We're getting closer! These two were both pretty excited to share the big bathtub with one another the other night. I don't think I have ever heard Tori laugh so much as she did when Elise dumped water on her belly! The fun is only just beginning for these two! One week ago it felt like Elise was clueless when it came to using the potty. I wasn't very consistent and she was happy to go try but it was entirely dependant on me! My attention span would last an hour or two at most before something would consume my time and Elise would pee on the floor, or worse! So we created our own method, forgot the books and took the diaper off for a couple hours every day. That's it! I figured this method would take six months to a year instead of the whirlwind three days I had been hopeful for in the beginning, but then on Wednesday something seemed to click. She started to ask to use the potty. We pulled out her big girl underwear and never looked back. At first we had some challenges because she would just go by herself and pee through her underwear or try to empty the little bucket on her potty by herself and spill pee everywhere, but she has mastered it and we haven't had an accident since Thursday at lunch! Hip Hip Hooray! I even had to make her a new sticker chart because the one that came with her potty is full. Now we have a poster collecting stickers in the living room. I figured the living room would be the best place for it because that's where she'd see it most! She needs a visual reminder because, like I said before, my attention span is too short to carry such a responsibility! She is still wearing diapers when she sleeps both at night, and in the afternoon. We will work on that when I have a few extra sheet sets. I just can't seem to find any white 100% cotton twin sheet sets with a decent thread count for a price I'm willing to pay! I'm happy to be picky and cheap until the matter becomes urgent! It was a bit of a blustery, unpredictably sunny/ rainy threatening to storm but not really actually storming kind of week so I took the opportunity to do some mending and some making while we hid inside, just in case. The quilt on Elise's bed was starting to come undone in a few places so I pulled out a needle and thread and pieced it back together while I visited with my friend Daisy. I also made a little basket to sit on the shelf in our soon to be newly renovated bedroom! I like baskets! They help me look responsible when my instinct is to put things down wherever I am and not wherever they belong. Under the close supervision of her little sister, Elise made lunch today! Don't those look delicious? I may have evened things out a little before these mouthwatering morsels made their way to the table. If I hadn't, there would likely have been a big fight over who got to eat the one with all the pickles! Thanks Elise! You make good sandwiches! Okay, that title might be a slight exaggeration, but this project has certainly taken a little longer than anticipated. It's getting closer to being done! We started painting last night! It's a little brighter than I had anticipated. More blue and less green than it looked on the little piece of card stock, but the more I look at it the more I love it! We don't have enough paint so we will need to get more, but we are getting there! Yippee! Maybe we will have our bedroom back by the end of August! Maybe sooner, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Tori has been eyeing up everything we eat lately. A couple of days before we went to camp we moved Elise over to a regular chair and started putting Tori in the high chair while we ate supper. She just wasn't content to lay in her play pen anymore, and we just weren't content holding her for every meal. When the girls were both seated in their new chairs they looked at each other and grinned. It was like they both knew that they had moved up in the world. Like they realized they were one step closer to romping around together in the yard, splashing together in the tub and getting into all kinds of mischief together. Oh what fun it will be. How lucky they each are to have a sister! She is, technically, supposed to wait another month before eating anything, but tonight we got a little impatient and busted out a teeny tiny bit of rice cereal. She loved it! |
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May 2016
AuthorLaura Chalmers |