Tag, You're It!

Parker was running around the house one night saying tag, you're it!  Where does he come up with this stuff?  Preschool.

My kids have a pretty crazy weekly schedule, they are with one Grandma two days a week, one Grandma one day a week and at a home daycare the other two days a week.  On top of that, I enrolled Parker in half a day of preschool per week.  At the time I kind of questioned whether it was necessary, but I figured we would see how it went. 

Well, I think it's been amazing.  Parker is a shy kid, I would say he's slightly introverted and takes a while to warm up to a situation.  He loves playing with his brother, and his brother goes everywhere else with him.  We absolutely love the  home daycare, but home daycare is regulated as to the max number of kids they can have, which is 5.  So there are only maximum 3 other kids with them at daycare and only one of them is Parker's age.

Preschool gives him the opportunity to interact with more kids who are in his age group, and not have his little brother to fall back on.  After he started at preschool I saw such huge improvements in his vocabulary.  He would come home singing songs.  I asked him who he played with and he told me "Joshua".  I had no way of knowing if this was true until I was talking to Joshua's mom, not knowing who she was, and she said that Joshua always talked about Parker.  Ok, I guess they are friends!

The other night I asked who he played tag with and he listed off four of the boys that go to preschool with him.  

It's strange to send your kids somewhere and not know what they are doing.  But I also love that he has somewhere that he can go independently and grow and learn.  

Beating the Winter Blues

Is anyone else's kids going a bit stir crazy?  All this cold weather is getting to Parker I think.  He doesn't get outside much, and I know I should take him out more but I hate the snow and the cold! But when he is inside, he just wants to watch Paw Patrol all the time, which I hate!  So here are a few things that I do to try to keep Parker occupied.

Change Location
He often plays upstairs, so just by saying let's play downstairs, it sometimes gets him excited to play with different toys. 

Put Toys Out of Reach
Certain toys I put away and only get out when he needs a suggestion for an activity.  I do this with puzzles, games and his Melissa & Doug fishing set.  Then, he doesn't lose all of the pieces amongst his other toys and he's excited to play with it when I do get them out.

Get Creative
I like to get Parker's paint set out or a colouring book when he's bored.  To be honest it's not a long activity usually, but it gives him something different to do.  And because it's not something he does a lot he really enjoys it.  As he gets older we will likely start doing more specific creative activities and crafts!

Learning Activities
I love getting out the paint set or some other learning activity for him to occupy his time. Education.com is a great website to find a variety of worksheets that will keep your kids occupied while they are learning something!  They have so many worksheets, games, colouring pages.  I find that if I give Parker something productive to do he is entertained and so much happier.  I think some of their items might be too tricky for Parker yet, but there were also a ton of preschool worksheets that could get him started with tracing shapes, colouring and writing letters.  

Education.com has provided my readers with a free word search that you can get my clicking the link below.  The answer key is there too in case you can't figure it out!  You can find more resources that help with specific things such as spelling here.  I was a huge nerd in school and I think I would of loved if my mom had of printed out worksheets like this.  There are still kids out there like me, right?

Word Search 

Answer Key

Do you have any other ideas for fun ways to keep kids occupied when it's cold outside?

Sleep Issues with Kiddos

I remember when it felt like I would never get a full nights sleep.  Parker slept through the night from about 4-8 months old, and then stopped until a few months ago.  Cooper, as you may recall, was nursing up to 4 times a night until he was 11 months old.  I didn't know how to night wean him and couldn't imagine that he would ever sleep well.

I considered going to a sleep consultant because I was so overwhelmed with the idea of getting him to sleep.  Parker had always slept fairly well, and just woke once a night, drank some milk and went back easily.  But Cooper was obsessed with eating all night long!

But I knew what a sleep consultant would say.  Put them to bed earlier (like 6:30pm early).  Have a routine.  Give them a bath before bed, read 47 stories.  Make sure nap times are consistent.  And that's not us.  I value sleep, I don't want my kids over tired or cranky, but I also enjoy our flexibility.  I don't want our entire lives to revolve around sleep.

I'm not here to give advice at all.  I don't really have any.  And I'm not here to knock sleep consultants, as I think what they do is amazing if you are willing to follow the sleep rules!  My kids just magically started sleeping better.  Once I weaned Cooper he actually became an incredible sleeper and only wakes up in the night once every few weeks. But I kind of hate all this sleep advice that's out there.  I find that with your kids, you have to find what works for you.  And maybe that means that you don't get great sleep for the first year of their life.  (Which I know sounds crazy).  But I also recently read some advice that said there is no reason for a baby to eat during the night after 5 months.  First of all, I don't believe that's entirely true with breastfed babies.  But secondly, I also read something that once said that we have been given a gift with the ability to soothe our babies by feeding them.  It really resonated with me.  And so as annoying as it was that Cooper ate 4 times a night, it was easier for me to nurse him for 10 minutes, than to wean him.  And that's the choice that I made.

Everyone will make different choices.  Some will co-sleep, some will sleep train, some will night wean.  It's all ok, if it works for you and your family and allows you to function.

So if you are going through a rough sleep stage, I hope it isn't long lasting and I hope you find what works for you, your family and your kids! 

Here Comes Santa Claus...Right Down the Santa Train

Christmas Eve seems as good a time as any to finally post about our trip on the Santa Train.  The Santa Train is a local train that you ride on and there is someone singing carols and then Santa comes to visit.  It's fun for the kids and kind of makes an even out of seeing Santa.  

The first half of the trip we had a man singing carols and playing the guitar and another man playing the saxophone.  The Santa comes onto your train car and everyone takes a turn to go down and see him.  Santa was so nice and friendly.  He gave the boys a train whistle.  Parker asked for a flashlight for himself and a flashlight for Cooper. (He's been pretty consistent all season that all he wants is a flashlight, Santa has a pretty easy job this year.)

A One Year Old

And poof, he's one.

This kids growing up thing is something that I'm still not used to.  It's crazy how much they change.  They go from this little teeny tiny baby, to this big boy who loves to eat and crawl and climb on top of his brother whenever he gets a chance.  And it all happens in a year!

Right after I had Cooper, I couldn't imagine going through birth again.  It hurt.  But I knew I would forget, and I have.  I also couldn't imagine going through pregnancy again.  But everything that you have to go through, makes this time so worth it.  I want all the babies if I'm able to watch them grow, because it's really so much fun.

I was so relieved when I went into labour with Cooper at just over 36 weeks.  That's something that not many people say!  But I was ready to meet this guy.  I was ready for him to make our family just a bit more complete.  

And brothers!  Oh boy, it's been fun.  I was unsure of what life would be like with two boys.  And it is a bit crazier than I had pictured my life.  And I think it will be a bit more expensive than I had hope, because Cooper eats everything in site, and Parker makes me open everything and then says "I don't like that."  But I love watching them together, and I love that they have each other.

Cooper has been such a joyful, easy going baby.  I hope he has those qualities for the rest of his life.  I hope he grows into a kind, hardworking, generous person.

We have done a lot this year.  Life has been crazy busy.  But that's the way we've wanted it to a point.  We have these kids, who want to see the world that they live in.  So I love to take them places, watch them as they see something for the first time.  Parker has also grown up this year and understands so much more, and so I know exactly what I have to look forward to with Cooper.  But if he could stay a baby for a bit longer that would be fine by me.

Ok enough of my rambling.  All of this is just to say, Happy Birthday Coop!  We love you more than you will every know (until you have babies of your own).  

Touristing in Kingston

The second half of our holidays, we camped at Rideau Acres outside of Kingston.  I had originally planned on taking advantage of all the park had to offer, but we got so busy doing other things that we were barely there.  

The first night that we got there we did a Ghost Trolley tour through the city.  I enjoyed this, Ryan had his reservations.  We made stops at John A. MacDonald's grave.  Parker may of seen a ghost, but we will never really know!  The driver said that sometimes kids wave at a man and a dog at the gate.  So my mom told Parker to tell her if he saw a man and a dog.  A few minutes later as we were driving through the gate he pointed and said man and doggie!  Power of suggestion?  Maybe.  But he didn't really know that it was at the gate that he was supposed to see them, so I don't know!

The scariest stop was at the Rockwood Asylum.  It's an old mental institution that looks terrifying.  Basically anybody could be sent there for things that really didn't make them insane and they would do testing on them.  So they think that it is very haunted.  Whether it was all just stories, I don't know.

There were other ghost stories along the way as well.

The next day we did the Kingston Penitentiary tour.  This was definitely the highlight, but you will have to wait because it's getting it's own post!

After that we stopped at the Rideau Canal to watch the boats for a bit.  Ryan and Parker loved it.  My anxiety about Parker being so close to the canal was through the roof.  I tried to contain it but things like that make me really nervous!

The third day we went to Murney Tower, which are old small little forts that they built a few of around Kingston.  My kind of museum, short and sweet.

Then we did the Penitentiary museum.  We brought the stroller because we assumed that it would be accessible, and it wasn't.  So I didn't spend as long in there as I could of since Ryan had to wait outside.  It was neat though.  Not too big so you could do it fairly quickly.

Parker liked the looks of this moose at first, but once he got close to it he was terrified!

Later that evening we took the Wolfe Island ferry to Wolfe Island for dinner.  There isn't much on Wolfe Island and we were one car away from having to wait an extra hour for the ferry.  Dinner was delicious, but Parker was very unhappy at the restaurant, which is slightly stressful.  Once he got some food in his belly he was better.  But the ferry was fun for Parker, (and us).  It was very windy....

On our last day we did a Boldt Castle cruise with Rockport Cruises.  It was a lot of fun!  It was perfect time wise for the kids.  Half an hour on the boat, 2 hours at the stop and then another hour on the boat.  It broke everything up nicely.

We stopped for a picnic lunch while at Boldt Castle.  We actually probably could of spent another hour on the island as there were things that we didn't see.

The boys had a good time camping.  I love that we have the trailer and can make these summer memories.  

Camping in the County

Last week we were away on our summer vacation!  It was a packed week of camping and we did so many activities.  It was slightly stressful at times.  Cooper was crankier than usual.  Parker had his good days and bad days.  Cooper had some sleepless nights.  But we made it through and made a lot of fun memories.  

I'm going to split this into two (or three) posts so hopefully it isn't too much picture overload!

We started the week at a little campground called Smugglers Cove in Prince Edward County.  We were there for 2 nights and it was a nice little park.  The sunset was beautiful!

While we were there, we explored the county a little bit.  We went to a few wineries and breweries, as well as Lake on the Mountain.  We even found a little petting zoo at one of the wineries, which was perfect for Parker!

We visited Lake on the Mountain.  It just looks like a regular lake in this picture, but it's at the top of a mountain and for a long time they weren't really sure where the water was coming from.  

 The day that we left that campground we stopped in at Long Dog Winery.  It was a cute little winery.  They mostly focused on red wines and chardonnay, which aren't my favourite.  But I did buy a nice sparkling Rose.

Next stop was Sandbanks Provincial Park.  This park is very well known amongst campers and very hard to get into.  We've been trying for years!  Luckily this was the year and we actually got 2 sites right across the road from each other.  

Unfortunately the bugs in both of these parks were terrible.  Poor Parker was eaten alive and completely covered in bites.  It wasn't even enjoyable to be outside half the time, which was really too bad.

 The first day that we tried to go to the beach we packed everything up (which with two kids takes a long time), and headed out around 12:30.  Well we get to the beach road and he tells us that parking is full and we should come back in a couple hours.  So we tried to go to the Dune's beach.  It was also full, but I think by being friendly they let us in.  

The beach isn't quite as nice, but the big dunes are there.  And the water is really calm so Parker had a great time playing.  It was so hot that day and we had no shade.  Cooper was miserable.  And honestly so was I. An unhappy baby in the heat is not a lot of fun.

This picture is of the trail.  They have had so much rain that it was completely flooded!  

The next day we got up and ready for the beach right away and went first thing in the morning.  Seems like an odd time to go to the beach, but we were able to get the perfect spot with some sun and some shade and it was much nicer.  I found a shady spot for Coop and he plopped down and loved playing with the sand!

 The day we left we had a relaxing drive to our next destination, Kingston.  We stopped in at Parson's Brewery in Picton for lunch.  We had some delicious tacos, Ryan had some beer.  And Parker, in typical Parker fashion, ate nothing.

So there is the first half of our trip.  Next stop, Kingston!

Cow Cows and Puppies

The funny thing about kids is that when you do activities that you are sure they will love, they usually could care less.  And when you do something that they shouldn't care about, they usually love it.

This weekend, I thought it would be fun for us to go play with puppies and see some cows at a farm up the road.  Because of kids being finicky about what they enjoy, a free farm is the perfect Saturday afternoon activity!  Because the boys barely cared about the puppies and were pretty afraid of the cows.  

 I guess I can't really blame him.  When you are 2.5 feet tall, a full grown cow must seem pretty massive.  It's much more fun to see them in a field as we drive by.

Baby cows are slightly less scary.

But they both loved the swing set.  Because you know, swings are everywhere...