beluga

This is another of Amelia's picture editing experiments. We do have to watch out, Picasa is easy to use, which means she can easily click-and-drag pictures out of order and into other folders (I'm guessing the last, I don't know how else she would have done it...). Maybe we'll have to give her her own computer to mess up, or make sure that everything is backed-up (teach her how to back-up and that could be one of her chores...) or, just maybe, wean her off computers, at least until she can read the warning messages!

Burke is not walking yet, that will be soon enough and once he starts I think there'll be no stopping him. I'm glad it'll be spring and we'll just go outside as much as possible. He imitates actions much more than I ever remember Mia doing at this point, I don't know if that's because I just don't remember or if he has an interesting older sister to imitate. Today, he tried to feed me when Mia and I were doing some serious cooking (Chocolate pie, chocolate mousse, soup and two loaves of bread, the first one burnt in the oven, all in under 30 minutes. Sure, they looked like building blocks, but oh, the taste!)

Grandma!

We had a nice time at the Aquarium with Grandma, who is visiting until Sunday.

Cupcakes

We made some cupcakes for Mia to have her candles in.

Happpy 3rd Birthday, little girl!

Happy First, little boy!

potty trained

(Does it count if she just sits on the pot for a long, long, long time until something happens? sometimes more than once in the same sitting?) (She won't get off sometimes.) (I am counting it, because she only uses the toilet now.) Yay! One down, one to go.

Firsts

Amelia had her first full potty-trained day today. No accidents. We started training a week ago Tuesday, when we went out and bought a 12-pack of underwear and just put them on during the day and changed them as we needed to. The first 5 days, we had one 'success' per day, then two and three, yesterday was three for five. Also two days ago she asked to go one or two of the times. Today she asked for some of the times, I suggested twice and then, to my surprise, the last two times she just toddled off and did it all herself. This last situation might be hard to do, I'm not sure how to make the toilet accessible to her and not for Burke. Today he had a cold and fever and so I was holding him all day and left the gate open to Mia's potty. We'll figure something out, the hard part's pretty much done now I'd say. She started dressing herself out of the blue one day about three weeks ago, so that was part of the timing. It's much easier to pull pants up over panties than a diaper.

Also, Burke and Mia had their first fight. And not in a "this baby's in my way" way either. Usually they play well together, they don't often need each other's toys, and if Burke's trying to grab something of Mia's, I;ll intervene and tell him that it's Mia's turn and that he can have a turn when she's done, then give him something else or take him away, depending on the situation. Usually Mia ends up giving it to him 30 seconds after. I actually rarely have to do this anymore. Anyway, the other night in the tub, I went into our bedroom for a moment. All of a sudden, Mia was yelling "I want it, I want it, I WANT IT!" and Burke was doing his particular p*%$$ed off cry/yell (he's mostly good humoured, but he does have a bit of a quick temper). I came back in to see that Amelia had the toy that Burke had just been playing with in one hand trying to hold it away from him and he was holding on hard to, and scrabbling at, her other arm. It was red where he'd been squeezing. It was really very funny.