Plett Family Weekend Pics

Some pictures from our family weekend at Elkhorn.

Summer So Far

Well, despite not having super great weather so far this summer, I've been really enjoying it and feeling like we've got lots of "summer" things on the go finally.

We started out the season with a week of holidays at Nate's parents place in Milton, ON. We spent about half our time up at their cottage on Georgian Bay which was great. Some highlights included:

• going for seadoo rides - Norah LOVED it and wanted to keep going faster and faster!


• having a ride on Nanna and Poppa's boat


• playing on the beach


• swimming with Uncle Jordan and Auntie Jolene and Cohen at their family's pool

We also got to see and spend time with some great friends that we still keep in touch with from when we lived out there 5 years ago.

Then in July we spent a long weekend up at Elkhorn Resort at Clear Lake with my family. Had a great weekend and had good weather both Saturday and Sunday. The men enjoyed some golf and we had some fun beach time, pool time, visiting, games and shopping.

(I'll post pictures in a separate entry cause this program is making me crazy with trying to put them in here!)

We've also enjoyed a bit of pool time in the backyard, trips to the park and the wading pool, BBQ's with friends, walks, bike rides and scooter rides, playing in the backyard, drawing with sidewalk chalk on the driveway, eating popsicles and ice cream and so many more things.

We're still looking forward to warm weather hopefully! And looking forward to having some friends come visit next week, a family camping trip (where we won't actually sleep over, just participate in the daytime fun!), a few days of "holidays" for myself and the kids at my parents and hopefully enjoy another visit from grandma in the city. We'll see if I get another post in before fall about those events!

Jack's Outbreak

Jack has had ezcema almost from birth but in the last couple of weeks he has experienced a breakout like we've never seen. It started with a small patch on the outside of his ankle which we thought was looking real raw and even oozing. That spread and suddenly he had patches all over his ankles and feet and on his fingers, too. Here's what ended up being the worst of it all - his thumb.
Thankfully it turned out he had a followup appointment with the dermatologist right when this was going on and he said it was infected and put him on antibiotics. Since then it is much better. The pussing and oozing is done now and he's left with some sores still that are drying up and coming off. But it's amazing to me how he's as happy as he is with the issues that he's had to face.

Now that he's learned to crawl on all fours and can get around quite fast, his new favorite activity is pushing around little cars. He'll sit down and put a Little Person on it it, then lift his leg and push the car under his leg. Then he starts chasing it. He'll push it, crawl after it, push it, crawl after it...and so on. It's so cute to watch him take interest in these different things when for so long all he could be interested in was whatever we put in front of him to play with.

He is progressing physically but slowly still. Now at 15 months he's able to finally crawl, and pull himself up on stuff. He's still quite wobbly when he stands for any length of time and needs to sit. He's learning how to crawl up stairs and waves good bye and claps and imitates us (today he was making kissing noises after I made them!). We celebrate every milestone with him almost more I think and love seeing the progress he's making! Now if only he'd start making progress like that on the scales!

Soother

Well, we FINALLY did it!! Took us till she was 3 years and 4 months old but we finally took Norah's soother away! It was like apart of her and we've talked since before she turned 3 about needing to take it away. But I think we were both too chicken to do it and it was kind of sad for me. As much as it annoyed and embarrassed me that she still had it, it was also cute that it was such a vital part of her sleep routine. And in the end it happened kind of abruptly. We were on a 3 hour drive to Elkhorn for a family weekend and Norah had her soother as we were hoping she'd nap in the car (she didn't). Anyway, she told us the soother had a hole in it. And I figured there was no way I was buying her another one (she did have a backup one but I didn't want to think or mention that one). So Nate and I decided then and there that we'd let her have the soother till we got home after the weekend and then that would be it. And I found a used pink scooter online to buy for her "trade" or "reward" (she had been talking for awhile about how she wanted a pink scooter). Tuesday afternoon came and I let her have the soother for resting time and when that was over, I said she could throw it in the garbage or I would. So shse doddled for awhile and really didn't want to get rid of it. Finally she took it over to her craft table and decided to "craft" with it. She cut it with her scissors a few times, wrote on it with markers, then wrapped it up securely in painters tape and threw it in the garbage. At bedtime she did mention it and called me back up and sheepishly said to me "I DO still want my soother." But she made it through and had a not bad night considering. The next day was worse and she was so tired that she did end up crying for her soother at bedtime. And the next morning the first thing she said to me was "maybe there's another soother. maybe I can have the yellow one." (which was the backup one). So i promptly took all backups to work with me that day and threw them out there so she wouldn't find them at home somehow. That day after I picked her up at daycare and we pulled up in the driveway at home she said, "maybe the garbage man will fix my soother and bring it back." But that's about it with the soother. There have been a few comments here or there about it but overall, the transition went MUCH smoother than I anticipated. And her sleeping is definitely no worse without it - in fact I'd almost say it's been better (however, now i'm sure I'll be up with her for a few hours tonight!).

So that was the last sign it felt like to me that my baby is no longer a baby. She's gone through the 3 transitions that seemed so big in my mind only a year ago - she's in her big bed all the time, she's potty trained and she no longer has her soother. So happy about it all, but a bit sad, too at the same time.

Here's a picture of Norah with her new little scooter!