Three Years Old

How can it be that my little girl is three! Wow, does time ever fly. Claire has taught me so much since she's been here. It sounds so cliche, but I really can not imagine not having her. Although the time has gone fast, it's hard to remember my life before her.

Claire is so funny at this age. She says things every day that make us laugh. Her imagination is huge right now. The other day, I caught her playing with two fridge magnets. She was pretending they were horses, and they were having quite the conversation with each other.

Claire is incredibly sweet. She tells us she loves us all the time, and she always looks out for her little brother. Although still very shy, she is starting to come out of her shell quite a bit. She now goes to preschool without so much as a fuss, and asks about it on the days she doesn't go.

She looooves singing, and has a ton of songs memorized that she sings by herself. It's adorable to watch. She loves animals, especially our cat Mabel. I often find her laying with her, and petting her, and talking softly to her.

We are so thankful to have this beautiful, smart, funny, sensitive little girl in our lives, and can't wait to see what her fourth year brings.

One day old

One year old

Two years old

Three years old

Nine Months

I'm a bit late posting this, but Jack turned nine months old last week. He seems to have reverted back to sleeping horribly. Claire started sleeping through when she was one, so I'm really hoping he will too, by the time he is one.

He is such a busy little boy. Into everything, and he has even taken a couple steps on his own here and there! He is also walking around with a walker now which he loves. He also loves climbing up stairs which gives me a heart attack every time.

He loves stuffed animals, music, and blueberries. Whenever he hears a song playing he starts bopping along to the music. It's so cute. He also loves animals. He gets so excited when he sees a cat or dog, and crawls after them, and then lies on top of them and tries to give them kisses as he pulls their tail.

I can't believe in three short months, he will be a one year old. Here's a couple quick video clips. The first one is Jack showing off his walking skills, and the second one is him bopping along to music the toy plays.

 

A Growing Boy

When I was pregnant with Jack I did a lot of research on what car seat to buy. With Claire I bought the one that was the most pleasing to the eye, and ended up hating it, and getting rid of it when she was only five months because it was such a pain to use.

This time I bought a seat that goes up to 32lbs, and 32" which gets most babies until the first year when they usually grow out of it in height. At the time, this was the highest weight/height bucket seat on the market. But since Jack is such a big boy, he grew out of his last month. I couldn't even get the straps over him anymore. I'm still glad I bought it since we would have had to move him months ago with a regular bucket.

Anyway, I'm going to put it up for sale on kijiji, but I thought I would take a picture of him in it today, before it's gone to compare to one I took when he was four days old. It's absolutley amazing how much babies grow in the first year. Hard to believe just 8.5 months ago he was a teeny, tiny newborn, that was hard to buckle up because he was so small.

Like Father, LIke Son

 It's no secret that Jack looks like his dad. But I didn't realize how much until I went through Denis' baby pictures recently. Denis is on the left, Jack on the right. In the first one Jack is two months old, and in the second two 8.5 months old. I'm guessing Denis was a similar age. It's crazy. They look like the same baby!

Winter Blahs

Well it's only the middle of January, and I'm sick of winter already! It's especially hard with small children. It's so much work to get them both bundled up, and out the door. So we spend more time inside than we do the rest of the year. I do make an effort to get out and play in the snow a few times a week though. The fresh air always feels good, and we do have fin while we're out there.

I use the opportunity to shovel the driveway and sidewalk while we're out there. We are on a corner lot which means LOTS of sidewalk to shovel. I actually like shovelling, and it gives me a bit if exercise which is always good. Really though, I'm counting down until spring. I love spring. I love when the snow melts, and everything starts turning green, and we can go outside in nothing more than a light jacket. *sigh* For now, I will try to make the best of winter since it's here to stay for a while. It does make for some cute pictures...

And some of my favourite recent pictures of my cuties...

Eight Months

 Another month has come and gone, and my little Jack is now eight months old! He is a VERY busy little boy. Much busier than his sister ever was. She was happy to sit and play for long periods of time even at this age, and is still very cautious. Jack on the other hand wants to go, and he does not stop. His favourite thing to do is pull up to stand. All day long he crawls from one thing to another and stands up. I think he's going to be an early walker, since he already will let go for a second or two, and in all his excitement tries to walk, but his legs have not caught up with what his brain wants to do, so he just falls down. He is so happy, and playful. He is a big talker. Babbles, and makes sounds all the time. He finally seems to be sleeping a bit better. He has been doing only one wake up lately, which I am so happy about.He has four teeth now, and he looks so cute with them. According to our scale, he's still 22lbs, so his growth has definitley slowed down.


Here are some recent pics of my sweet boy...

And here is both Claire and Jack at eight months old...

Mexico

 We went on a family vacation to Mexico at the end of December. It was so nice to be able to spend a week together without having to worry about all the normal errands and responsibilities. Just quality time together...the warm weather wasn't too shabby either. 

We watched the sunrise over turquoise water, and beautiful white sand beach.

We splashed and swam in the pool for hours on end.

 We napped poolside

 We sat by the pool and read. Here Claire is catching up on her Reader's Digest.

 

We swam in the ocean, and played in the sand.

 

 We are already saving up for another trip next year. I've heard Cuba is nice...