Keeping up with Alette and Abria: October 2011

Friday, October 28, 2011

Happy Halloween....

It has become an annual tradition in our house to carve pumpkins with Ganiyah and Nadia-a tradition that started way back when I was still working at Camp Peace and Nadia was a camp kid. I think we took a year or two off when we both had newborns, but otherwise, we have been faithful to our traditions. Ironically, our carving skills have not improved and the pumpkins still have a basic triangle eyes/nose/lopsided mouth look.

The girls had a blast together-squealing over the pumpkin 'guts', laughing at each others' creations, and then finally oohing and aahing over the glowing jack-o-lanterns.

If I manage to finish their costumes, and they agree to wear them, I may actually have photos of trick-or-treating soon.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Great Moments

Some of my favorite moments are unplanned...the times when I 'catch' the girls simply being wonderful together. Both girls have a love for books and stories, and lately they have been pretending to read to each other. In the top photo both girls were browsing through a Tintin book before Alette told Abria to 'stop reading over her shoulder'. Hmmm, wonder where she heard that phrase before? In the other photo, the girls had been looking through their nature books and comparing the different animals. Then I overheard them start to tell each other 'scarey' stories based on the pictures. It was quite funny to hear their imaginations go wild as they tried to outdo each other in the scariness factor.

The Joy of Being 3!

Don't you wish you were 3 again? When it was completely okay to wear a bookmark (handmade by Andy) as a headband, a Canadian lanyard, a dress, and rainboots (unfortunately you cannot see them in the photo)? The models in Vogue have nothing on my girls.

Recent Words of Wisdom

18months

At 18months, Abria weighs a whopping 28 1/2 lbs and is 34" tall. She is a bundle of energy-she loves dancing and clapping to music, scribbling (unfortunatley not always on paper), chasing her sister, and playing with her toys. She's using more and more words but still communicates primarily by pointing and making the sign for 'more'. She's had a continual cold for the past few weeks, I've never used so much tissue in my life. Morning naps are a thing of the past :( but thankfully she is still taking a long afternoon nap.

Okay, it's not a REAL gingerbread house...

Our attempts at a gingerbread house was a fiasco this year. We mixed the dough, rolled it out, cut the patterns, put it together...only to have it fall apart. So we put it together again....only to have it fall apart again. I even tried to use duct tape and the glue gun. Finally we ditched it. I was determined to have a house for Alette to decorate so we built a cardboard house, then 'glued' on graham crackers with icing. So far it is till standing although the candy decorations are slowly disappearing.

Abria

Our last dr. appointment was not fun. Abria had a major fever and was feeling rather rotten. So the immunizations were put off a week...nothing like procrastinating the awful stuff. She's dropped to the 90th percentile for weight (although with her puffy winter fleece on-below-she looks huge!) and is off the chart for height. Not a huge suprise with a 6ft. tall mom! She loves her books, turning on and off the lights, climbing onto tables, and petting the cat. She's walking....abit. She's still pretty convinced that walking should only be done when holding onto someone's hand.

Abria

Politics According to a 3year Old

I was listening to B.Obama on NPR last week and decided to further Alette's awareness of politics by engaging her in discussion. This is how it went:
me: Alette, Barak Obama was on the radio, he's going to be our new president. Isn't that good?
alette: Obama's good?
me: yes, he is. Mommy and Daddy like him a lot. We think he's good.
alette: he listens to God?
me: I think so. We're excited that he's going to be the president.
alette: I want duck for president.
I think we have a ways to go before she's up to speed on her political saviness. Who can blame her for wanting a fun loving, mischevious duck for president though?

Introducing Abria Hope

During pregnancy I prayed for a quick delivery and a nonfussy eater. Abria came into this world on Friday, July 18 at 9:00pm, half an hour after we arrived at the hospital. With a full head of dark hair, and a voracious appetite, she behaved nothing like her older sister. Abria's now nearly 18lbs, and is a happy, content baby. She loves chewing on her hands, squealing, shrieking, and taking baths. We are still waiting for her to sleep through the night! She doesn't always need to get fed, but seems to delight in babbling and squealing at all hours. Somehow her big drooly smile makes it all worthwhile.