In Remembrance and The Toy Box(es)

Today is Remembrance Day (Lest we forget…) and the kids are 11 months (actual).

I somehow managed to get my teeth cleaned today. I LOVE to get my teeth cleaned. I know, I’m weird.

We are looking forward to Nanna's visit tomorrow. That makes two visits in two weeks.

The kids have three toy boxes; one in the living room, dining room and nursery. The kids have so many toys. Recently, I packed a whole bunch of toys away (that they weren’t yet interested in) as I read that you can over stimulate your kids to the point that they can’t focus on anything. Whatever.

In reality, I got tired of putting them ALL away every time. You see, their latest trick is to take every single last toy out of the toy box, regularly.



Max’s favourite toy would have to be one of his two musical books (with lights). He loves all books; plastic, paper, electronic, wooden. He likes to open the pages, chew on them, throw them, and generally destroy them.

Artemis’ favourite toy is whichever one that Max has. Seriously. She likes to carry them around either in her hand or mouth (as you saw recently) so we find them everywhere.

Some other favourites are spoons; plastic and metal as well as wooden spatulas. Followed closely by tea towels (taken from their hook). In fact, most of their favourite toys aren’t even found in the toy box (the proverbial throw the toy away give them the box). I guess that makes our kids “normal”.

Here's Max playing with Daddy's "toy" (tool) box.

Hide and Seek

Two posts for today.

What's For Dinner?

The kids have been eating solids (2-3 times a day) for almost 3 months. In the morning, they have cereal with a fruit. They absolutely love banana and are able to eat a whole one between the two of them. We try to work it that we all eat dinner together (it’s a bit of an organizational nightmare). We generally feed them some of what we’re having; tortiere, pork with vegetables, chicken breast (a real favourite), vegetables, you name it. The latest guidelines (they change all the time) is that they can eat anything except honey (until one year as it can carry botulism). We will be slowly introducing peanut butter as Ed has a nut allergy (not because peanut butter isn’t allowed).

I think that Max would be happy if mommy and daddy fed him a bottle for the rest of his life. He’s not much interested in eating, whether we feed him or not. The one exception is pancakes, he could eat them all day!

Artemis is the polar opposite. She loves to feed herself and can she eat (she must have a hollow leg like her mother). The latest concoction is pureed potatoes/squash/yams/carrots with a hard boiled egg yolk and olive oil (both for extra calories). She eats more than twice what Max eats. Her favourite would have to be bananas.

After their meal, they get to play with their spoons (one of Max’s favourite activities, followed closely by throwing his spoon on the floor and staring at it, willing it to rise up). We’re at the point where we’ll have to move their chairs further apart as they like to get into each others space and it makes for very messy eating. We just bought them matching (booster) high chairs this week and it’s made our life easier (another one had a large tray that wouldn’t store anywhere and usually got tripped on).

They’re still getting their bottle first (followed by food) but shortly we’ll be switching that (maybe not for Artemis as she needs the extra calories and breast milk is richer than solids). We’ll see what the doctor says. They must be going through a growth splurt because for the past week, they have increased their intake by over one ounce (30ml) a feed (Max is at 8oz, Artemis is at 7oz). I’m working hard to keep up with the demand, thankfully I have a lot of frozen milk.

Multiple Personality

Apparently, Artemis thinks that she's a dog.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today, Ed arrived home from Arizona, however, I was not there to meet him at the airport. Instead, my mother was there. I was in the hospital as Alexander’s water broke (“membranes ruptured” is the medical term) and my 4 week, 5 day stay in the hospital (it was longer but that was post delivery) began. Yes, the kids birthday was “almost” today (at a gestation of 25 weeks, 5 days). Thankfully, it was not.

This is the first of many firsts that I am finding difficult. It’s tough because I know what’s coming and while it’s reason to celebrate; December 11 was the kid’s birthday, it was also followed closely by December 19, Alexander’s passing.