Julia and Emily's World

This afternoon we went to Gage Park for some New Year's Eve festivities. The real events started at around 6pm but we just went early for the rides (needless to say there were no line-ups). The wind was cold but it didn't seem to bother Julia. They had buses there to warm up in. That was the best part. Last post for 2008. Happy New Year! Thanks for reading.

Emily is not always crying. Here is some proof that she is happy sometimes. She especially loves Julia's silly faces.

Emily is now smiling and babeling a lot more now (milestone...check!). She is a happy baby for parts of the day. Other parts of the day she is not so happy. Emily is still colic and cries for hours during the night. Her worse times are around 2:00am to 4:30am but sometimes it starts a lot earlier. This is a very tired household right now. She did have a couple of good night this past week. She was still up during those hours but was not crying. Julia was also colic but it lasted for only 2 weeks. From what I have read, approximately 20% of babies are colic and they usually outgrow it by 3-4 months. Great...only 8 more weeks to go. *sigh*

Christmas day started with Julia opening presents under the tree from Santa. She was happy because she got the DS she wanted and in PINK! "See, Santa DOES have pink paint!" she said. Later in the day we went to Gary and Jackie's for Christmas dinner. Good food and good times. Emily was an angel. Now everyone thinks we are lying about her being colic.

We had home made pizza on Christmas eve. I guess this is our new tradition since we did the same last year. Julia got to also open her presents. The big hit...SLINKY! Still fun after all these years!

My co-worker Andrea invited the team over for dinner on Monday. Andrea and her husband Greg live in a beautiful home outside of Aurora. Their two boys did a great job entertaining the younger kids. Dinner was fantastic. On the way out Julia remarked that she wanted to live in that house. Maybe Andrea will adopt Julia.

Julia stay at Grandma's for two nights with Selena and Mya. Mya was home sick the first night but was well enough to join them for the second night. On the first night Julia was really hyper. She was driving Selena nuts. Selena asked Grandma to send Julia home. Julia really enjoys her cousins. She wants them to sleep over our house. Maybe when Emily is a bit less fussy.

Friday was Julia's school's little Christmas Pageant. Each class sings a couple of songs. Unfortunately the storm kept Mommy from attending but I caught it on video for her. There is a funny/gross part in the second song. Watch the video.

Julia built her own drum set. She tried to make it as accurate as possible. She even said "the crash cymbals have to be up high" and also tried to make her own kick drum. She got me to try it out too. She is suprisingly very interested in drums although she has make it clear that piano is her favourite instrument.

Santa made his annual visit to the school. Mommy, Grandma and Emily also stopped by for a visit. Emily even got to see Santa too. After school, Julia had a sleep over at Grandma's house. That was to give us a chance to sleep in. That didn't quite work out since Emily kept us up all night! This is the 4th Santa Julia has seen this year (Parade Santa, Christmas Party Santa, Mall Santa, School Santa). And they all look different! I wonder if she's figuring it out.

Emily is now six weeks old and weighs 8 lbs 2 oz. She has been growing fast! Emily still likes to sleep during the day and stay up all night...CRYING! We hope that gets turned around fast. We've been trying to get Emily to take a soother. So far Julia is the only one who was able to get her to take it so I snapped a picture of this rare event.

Julia's final swimming lesson was this week. Julia has come a long way. She is not quite swimming but has overcome her fears. She can jump in, float face down and tries to take a few strokes too. She has fun so we'll continue to sign her up.

Today Julia and I went to my work's Kids Christmas Party at the Kortright Centre in Woodbridge. Mommy stayed home with Emily. It was a lot of fun for Julia because most of her JK classmates were there too. There was Santa, face painting, candle making, and bird feeder making. There was even a room with animal pelts and stuffed animals. That seemed to be Julia's favourite part of the day. There were also some outdoor activities which we skipped because of the cold weather.

You have to brainwash them early. I tried this with Julia but it didn't work. She still just roots for the team with the nicer colours...usually that's RED!

This weekend we celebrated Emily's one month birthday (the hats were not my idea!). It doesn't feel like one month because her time was split between hospital and home. Emily continues to gain weight at a rapid pace. She is around 7 lbs now. You can see from the pictures that she actually has chubby cheeks now!