The first hair cut

Before...

...and after.

The new hair do.

Summer has finally arrived...Yippeee!!!

The Canmore children's festival

There were bouncy castles, story tents, clowns and musicians, craft tents, learn how to walk on stilts tents and learn how to juggle tents, clowns making fantastic balloon hats, Katag games and pancakes served all day and that was only half of it. And I only saw half of that...trying to keep and eye on an excited 2 year old and a 10 month old on my back. Standing in any line up was virtually impossible......

...but she did stand for the face painting .

and it was really worth it....

We had a great time and Heather managed to get her face painted again!!!
She asked the lady for a lion face and the lady said to me " are you sure it is a lion she wants, the kids often say a lion when they mean a tiger?"
So I asked her "Do you mean the animal with stripes on it's face?" and she shook her head. We then realised that it was definitely a lion that she wanted. And what a great lion she made.


Finlay did so well with all the distractions and missed his morning nap, but by noon he was getting ready for a rest and a change of scenery, and so was I. But it made for a great morning.

Getting so hansome and grown up

Just hanging around.

Finlay is 10months old and has grown so much and changing every week, although there is one thing that is not changing and that is, that he still doesn't enjoy tummy time, no interest in crawling or making an attempt at moving. I put him on his tummy and he wiggles his bum, pushes up with his hands, kicks his legs for a bit and then turns his head to the side and lies down again...too much like hard work. He is perfectly happy sitting and playing with his toys and he has developed an enormous stretch. James wishes that he was as flexible!!!
However he does love bouncing in his super saucer and he giggles with glee as we bounce along when we play chasing games with Heather.
He is still a great eater and has just managed to learn how to grasp at pieces of food and get them to his mouth, whether it goes in is another matter, but he is sure growing up fast.
This boy loves to bounce, clap and shake his head to music and makes his own music by patting his hand on his mouth!!

so cute...

So cheeky...

So in need of a hair cut!!

Little Miss Independant

Heather loves going to the park and often wakes in the morning and the first words that come out are "Go to the park now?". In fact she loves it so much that one day she was being persistant and mum was obviously not moving fast enough for her excitement. As I was gathering all our bits and pieces and organizing Finlay, she was on the deck. I said to her to wait as I had to get Finlay from the house into the stroller. Came back and no Heather!!!!! Heart in mouth situation and I knew exactly where she was heading. I stridded after her and when I got there she was standing calling for "mumma!!!". Thank goodness the park is only two houses down, but still too far for a 2 year old. Now the peculiar thing is, that when we play hide and seek in the house, I normally I get about 3 seconds before she is eager to look for me, but when I actually manage to hide out of sight, she comes running back into the room calling for "mumma!!!" and if she can't see me I can hear the panic rising in her voice.


Heather has progressed to the big swing and is learning how to pump her legs to make her go higher, she enjoys riding on the swing on her tummy and being twisted around to then be spun back. Her attention span is increasing slightly and it is still challenging to capture these moments, however she recently sat with me and completed a 25 piece jigsaw , I was quite surprised and impressed.
She is now wanting to walk down the stairs by herself. This is great because I have been saying to her for months now that she can try by herself, but until now she wanted to be carried and this meant carrying the both of them down. Just a few days ago began taking herself to the wash room to pee and doing everything herself. Even at bedtime she wants to move her little stool to the big toilet and manages to get up on her seat by herself. However there are still a few frustrations for her, like when her bike is lying on the ground and she is unable to figure out how to pick it up, or when she is trying to get her train set bag out from under the table but the chair is in the way and she just pulls and pulls and then get frustrated when it doesn't come out. We go to her and calm her down then get her to look at the situation and work it out together....It's such a complicated life !!!!

Birthdays and Mother's day

Another loving head lock.

Birthdays just aren't the same as you get older...No big party celebrations, no balloons and a lot less presents !!!! Of course it's all for the young, and so it should be. For them it is a great excitement which is talked about for weeks, waiting for presents, balloons, ice cream and jelly and a big birthday cake !!! I know I was as excited, if not more excited for Heather's birthday, than for my own. These days, people ask, so what are you doing for your birthday? And I found myself saying "Oh, just looking after the kids!!!" However, that was honestly the best way to spend my birthday and we had such a good time. I took them a bike ride by the river and then stopped by the swimming pool and took them both for a swim, I then cycled back home gave them a quick lunch and they both slept for 2 hours at the same time....perfect !!! That gave me time to myself for cooking and mashing butternut squash, chopping veg for dinner, folding (not ironing the washing), taking the garbage out and tidying up from lunch, oh and drank another half cup of tea !!!!

Mother's day was another perfect day, weather was great and we went for another bike ride to a new park, had fun on the swings, the slides and the tunnels and then we sat on our picnic mat and had a little picnic, we met a few of our friends who seemed to be having a similar day, James said " Sorry that I didn't get you anything!!!"....but what else do I need, I had my two children ..Ohh and a lovely hand made painted card !!!!

Of course there is a story to go with this day too.
Heather is fully potty trained but I always have a change of clothes just in case and on any normal day she stays dry, no matter what the distractions....So as I was packing the food bag and the cool bag making sure we all had enough food, warm water for heating milk, sun hats, balls to play with..... and we have to take two!!! and a blanket. Bike... check!!.....stroller...check!!...bike and stroller attached together...check!!..little secondary safety doo dah attachment thing just in case...check!!..children ..check!!..check!!..spare trousers for Heather Mmm.....uchh! she's just peed and pooped and she's so good...we'll be okay!!!
Well we got to the park and she was running from one thing to another all excited and then as she stood on the wobbly bridge I could see her do the pee dance... "Heather do you need to Pee?"
"No!!"...
"Heather!!"..
"No!!"...
And then it happened, trousers,pants and socks soaked!!!
Do we go home?..but it's not really her fault...I was the mum who forgot the spares, so

Well it's just as well I have an account at the local second hand kids store and deducted some of my credit on a pair of trousers and some care bear pants. We were able to return to the park and keep everybody happy.

When the circus came to Canmore

The Circus came to town, and everybody who had kids were talking about it. Everybody had changed their daily routine to make it to the circus. I had tried to get Finlay to have a slightly earlier nap, and it's so funny to think that on any normal day he is happy to sleep for 2 hours, but when I actually need him to have a 2 hr nap so that he will last through the circus....Ohhhh no!!... Nuh huh !! Would he sleep? Would he heck !!!! Parents were picking their kids up from daycare early and the car park at the rec centre was solid.




We were greeted at the entrance by clowns. The ice had been removed from the arena and had been replaced with a circus stadium with elephant rides, face painting stands, light sabers, candy floss and more clowns. This time I was there early enough and able to get Heather's face painted and she was delighted. We met Daddy and took our seats and the loud music began. There were jugglers, acrobats, dancers, hula girls, fire eaters, beautiful white horses, dancing lions the whole works. I was holding Finlay and he was kicking his feet, waving his arms in the air to the music and shaking his head and when the audience clapped, he raised his hands in the air and clapped too!!... he lasted 3/4 way through and then it all got a bit too much and he expired in the car seat!!! Heather was so excited, she has never been to a circus and probably never really new what to expect, however she was thrilled and excited to be there and was amazed at all the action. Later in the evening she was jumping around and we asked her what she was doing and she said that she was being an acrobat!!!