Fall pictures and more

Last week held some unexpected sunny days. I think the whole city of Abbotsford is outside on those days since they are few and far between. One afternoon Micah thought it was fun to push Keziah in her stroller out in the backyard and she thought it was fun too.



















And it was fun until the front wheels got stuck in the grass and, out of frustration, Micah pushed the stroller as hard as he could. The stroller toppled over with Keziah still buckled in it. Her and I were both very unimpressed.



















Keziah has started pulling herself up like crazy. A week ago she barely did it at all and now she's a pro already and starting to cruise around a bit. It's crazy how quickly they can figure things out.

Here's a picture comparison of Micah and Keziah both pulling up on the dishwasher at about 11 months. I see some similarities but I think I see more differences...




Here are the Toews sisters hanging out on our bed on the weekend. We were killing some time before we went to see a late movie, Dan in Real Life. This was such a surprisingly clean, funny and cute movie. I can't wait to see it again!



We finally got out this Sunday to get some family pictures. My goal was to come away with one good shot for our Christmas cards. There are a couple that might work. But here are a few that didn't make the cut:








We got a picture of Grandpa & Grandma Toews with their three grandchildren:



It's impossible to get Micah to stand still for a good picture...

Keziah all bundled up and ready to head back to the warm house:


We took a quick trip up to Erik's latest house project to see the finish work inside. It looks beautiful! Micah loves hanging out at the job-site...

To end off, here's the fantastic view from where Erik is working these days...

Giggles with Daddy

The other night Erik and the kids had fun with an empty mini smarties box. Keziah doesn't laugh easily so hearing her giggle like this is a treat :)

11 months

Yesterday Keziah turned 11 months old! That means in only one month she will be one year old already! Crazy.

Keziah is definitely an expert crawler now and is getting the hang of pulling herself up. I've mentioned before that she has been a tough baby these last several months. I've concluded that part of the problem is that she hasn't been easily pacified by the things that worked with Micah - i.e. the soother, and Baby Einstein videos. She'll take her soother for sleeping but otherwise wants nothing to do with it (which I know I will be thankful for in the long run). But, thankfully she has finally started to show an interest in Baby Einstein. It sounds bad that I should want my child to watch TV so badly, but when 4 o'clock rolls around, it is music to my ears! Here she is getting in some Baby Mozart the other day:

Also, I have decided that having two kids is more than double the work - at least with my kids. Yesterday morning Erik took Micah for breakfast and Keziah played happily by herself for that whole hour. But as soon as Micah came home he was in her face and making her cry. She screams if he just looks at her funny. And, of course, Micah loves the reaction :p

(Even though Keziah doesn't care for her soother, she's likes to crawl around with her razbaby teether in her mouth!)

Keziah also loves to fill her diaper in the middle of the night lately. Three nights in a row last week she cried out in the night and I was greeted with a lovely odour as I entered her room. I don't mind a quick midnight diaper change now and then, but when she is ready to get up and play for the next couple of hours, I get a little bit frustrated.

Now I have a birthday party dilemma: Keziah and Micah's birthdays are only 3 weeks apart, and Micah's birthday only shortly before Christmas. I think I would like to have a party but I don't want to plan 2. I'm thinking of having a joint party this year. Any suggestions?

That's all for today. We have all come down with an annoying cold this week and for some reason Micah has decided that 5:30 is his new wake-up time :( What happens when the time changes and he's getting up at 4:30?!? Yikes. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it...

The Tale of the Lion and the Chick

Once upon a time there was the CUTEST little chick named Keziah. (Who could resist this plump little bundle of sweetness??)

She was minding her own business as she was crawling along,

And catching up on some reading...

When suddenly she spotted a ferocious beast coming towards her!

It was Micah the mighty Lion!

He was a fierce and angry animal.

Before Keziah knew what happened, she was mauled by the predator!

He tackled her down,

And let out a mighty ROAR!

In an act of desperation, the Chick managed to escape while the Lion stopped to "cheese" for the photographer.

And luckily for the sweet little Chick, Daddy came home to keep the ferocious Lion away from her for good :)

The End

Busy

I realize my blog has been sadly lacking in updates lately. Life has been busy in the last couple of weeks with my parents' visit and family time and the start of our care group (which Erik and I are co-leading this year). We also have a couple of big decisions to make in the next little while. Our time and our thoughts are occupied these days.

I babysat for Caleb a couple of times this week while Doug & Elissa had more doctor and physio appointments. Micah is infatuated with "baby Cay-dib"! Caleb smiled easily for Micah too. Here he is with a little grin for the camera:

Micah enjoyed feeding him his bottle:

My own kids are keeping my days busy as always. Most of the time I am mediating between Micah and Keziah, but there are rare moments when they seem to get along.

Here's Micah feeding Keziah her sweet potatoes the other day. I love how wide his mouth is!


Sharing a puffed-wheat picnic with Bob the Builder:


And this last picture makes me laugh. Lately, Keziah loves to crawl around with objects in her mouth, especially her own socks :)

Weekend Update

The week with my parents is over and they are headed back to Manitoba in the morning. It was fun watching Micah interact with them this time. I observed as he grew more and more comfortable and attached to them over the course of the week. It was also fun observing Micah through the eyes of my parents. They commented on the fact that he's willing to try new foods and eats a wide variety of things - Erik and I took that as a compliment since we're always focused on the foods that he doesn't eat. We also noticed how much Micah sings. He'll get a song in his head and sing it over and over for hours! The favourite this week was "Oh no, you never let go, through the calm and through the storm..." It's a Matt Redman song I think. Anyway, it's Micah's new favourite. He definitely takes after me with his singing. I think me and my sister Erin sang my parents' ears off as kids.

Our trip to Bellingham was great. We did lots of shopping. Sleeping was an adventure as always but at least we had a separate room from my parents. Keziah had some bowel issues and filled her diaper about 5 times a day - not excluding the nighttime.
The kids LOVED the water though...

On Friday night we found out that my brother and his wife finally had their baby boy, Judah Daniel who weighed in at 9 lbs, 4 oz. Congrats to Joel, Laura and big sisters Maddy & Olivia!

Sunday was my 28th birthday - I agree with Kelly that 28 seems like an old number. How will it feel to turn 29? And then 30? I still feel like I'm 18 most days. Erik brought me "breakfast in bed" so to speak. He went to the continental breakfast buffet and loaded up a tray of food for the four of us to share :)

After I snapped those pictures, I figured I needed one of the birthday day girl. So, this is lovely me first thing on my birthday morning:

I have to add, Erik has improved drastically in the birthday present department since we first met. He bought me three great shirts and then let me buy a pair of shoes that I had been eyeing.

The shopping tuckered us all out. Micah had enough on Sunday morning as we were picking up some final things and fell asleep in the bottom of the Sears cart:


Granny had some fun painting Micah's fingers and toes yesterday. Erik wasn't very impressed.


We finally had a sunny day today. My mom and I took Micah to Mill Lake and he had fun throwing rocks at the ducks:


I wanted a picture of my dad with the kids and this was the best I could do (check out Micah's pretty fingers...):

Keziah & Grandpa:

She gets cuter and cuter every day!

We bought a new carseat for Micah and finally upgraded Keziah to Micah's old one. They were both quite pleased and we snapped a picture in our living room this afternoon.

We also celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend with Erik's family. It was pretty low key this year in light of all that we've been through these last few months. Although they are joys for us and things to be thankful for, they all seem over-shadowed by a grief that still feels so fresh.

Now it's back to a normal week for us as my parents head home. I realized today that Micah has kept his underwear totally dry for the last few days. We've been so busy that I didn't notice! That's something to be thankful for since it's been a long haul since the accident in July when everything in his little life went into upheaval. He's also been sleeping better and is way less anxious about being apart from me or Erik. It will still be awhile until we can leave him in KidsQuest (Sunday School) without one of us, but for now we'll take what we can get :)

Anyway, that's enough for tonight. Hope you all have a blessed week...