Julia and Emily's World

This weekend we went to London with Autie Jackie, Uncle Gary, Selena and Mya. We started off on Sunday at Storybook Gardens. It's a great place for small kids. The weather forecast was iffy but it turned out to be perfect. It just rained a bit mid-afternoon. The kids had fun in the waterpark, seeing animals (the peacocks roaming free made them a bit nervous), and playing on the climbers. For lunch we had a picnic on the grounds. After Storybook Gardens we went to the hotel. This was all the kids first time staying in a hotel. Julia insisted that we were at Grandma K's house. At the hotel we went to the pool before dinner. Julia experience at the pool started off rough. There was a small shallow pool for little little kids (2 ft deep). I sat Julia on the edge of the pool to give her a chance to get use to it. We'll she got use to it quickly because she FELL IN! I had my back turned, Sheryl yelled, and I turned around to see her UNDERWATER! She was fine. Scare...

Today was Mommy's birthday. Julia made her a birthday card at school today. She was very proud of her work. She also bought Mommy pink and purple flowers. That was totally Julia's idea...very thoughtful. We celebrated Mommy's birthday at Grandma and Papere's house. We had ice cream cake. Julia got a thrill eating blueberries right off the tree in Papere's backyard. She clean out the whole tree (all 7 blueberries). Mommy's best birthday present was that Julia FINALLY did a number two in the toilet! This is a relief because she has been holding it for days lately. Overall her toilet training has gone very well. Zero accidents at school for the past two weeks. Her only accidents were IN THE CAR on the way home on Monday AND Tuesday! I'm and expert at dismantling car seats and putting them back together now.

Today we went to Downey's Farm with Grandma and Papere. We saw goats, sheep, rabbits, cows, and a llama. Papere got upclose to feed the goats. They were practically chasing him around. Julia enjoyed the animals but got a bit nervous when too many came around. After the farm we went to Gage Park to play in the water and ride the swings.

Saturday we went to Centre Island with all the cousins. Even Grandma and Papa came. Uncle Louis came too. Julia enjoyed more rides this year than last. She even went on the Log Ride. She didn't like it ("too big for me"). She loved the merry-go-round. Julia had an accident waiting in line for the swan ride. Not her fault. We forgot to take her to the bathroom for over 2.5 hours. Oops. Everyone had a great time and the weather was perfect.

A few weeks back we decided to take today off as a family day off. Our plan was to go to African Lion Safari. Well the weather didn't co-operate with all the thunderstorms and downpours so we decided to go to the Ontario Science Centre. Unfortunately it seemed like everyone else decided the same thing. After fighting traffic for over an hour we get there and find out the line to pay is over an hour long! Of course we find out AFTER we pay for parking and park the car. Forget it! Too long and too crowded. An employee there said that their busiest days are Mondays and rainy days. Figures. We ditched the OSC and went to visit Grandma K. Julia wanted to go there anyways. Nathan was there too so Julia had fun playing with her cousin. We had lunch there and hung out for a few hours. We'll try another day off in a couple of weeks.

Julia spent most of the day at Grandma's while Mommy and Daddy did stuff around the house. She had a good time playing in the sprinkler and going to Tim Horton's for a chocolate donut. Julia's toilet training has gone fairly well. She had one accident today and one Thursday night. She only had one accident at school all week and that was outside. Unfortunately she is still afraid to do a number 2 in the toilet. Instead she holds it...for days! We learned this week that she hates prune juice. We tried. Today I painted the garage door. We don't like the colour. Julia didn't see it until tonight when we got home from Grandma's. As we pulled into the driveway...Julia sees the new colour. Julia: This is not my house. Mommy: It IS your house! Julia: It's a new house? Mommy: No. Daddy painted the garage door. Julia: I don't like it. Unanimous! We all hate it!

Today Julia had her regular check-up with the ear doctor. He said that her ears were not infected but he couldn't be certain that there was no fluid build up behind the ear drums. The ear drums are not totally normal. They have a bit of scar tissue on them and there is negative pressure behind them (the opposite of them bulging out). This indicates that the tube from the middle ear to the throat (eustachian tube) is still not functioning normally which could lead to more infections. Julia will be going for a hearing test to make sure her hearing is fine. Julia only cried a little bit at the check-up. The toilet training has been going well. Only one accident at school over two days. However, she still refuses to do a number two on the toilet. Instead she requests a diaper in the evening to do her business. I guess we'll keep working on that.

Julia did great today. No accidents. She even spent some time at Grandma's house and went to the toilet there too. However, she did avoid doing a number two. She said she's "a bit scared" to do that in the toilet. Tomorrow will be her first day at school in her underwear. We are bring lots of extra clothes.

We have officially started to toilet train Julia (we'll forego any pictures today). We figured what better way to celebrate the long weekend than to clean up pee and poop off the floor. It really has gone very well. Julia had a few accidents yesterday including her bed during nap time but she is really trying her best. She has been telling us before peeing that she has to go and when we routinely put her on the toilet she goes. So overall she is doing well. Today was better. She only had ONE peeing accident (in her sandbox...maybe she was pretending to be Auntie Weezie's cat) and ONE pooping accident (outside as well...whew!). I really didn't mind her pooping accident because she has been holding it for 2 days, afraid to go in the toilet. I guess that is a good sign because she obviously has control. It wasn't so bad to clean because it was like a big baseball sized ball of brown playdough in her pants. I didn't realize that a two year old is capable of plu...