Winter Fun

This has been a winter of firsts for Samara.

We went to Withrow Park for her first toboggan ride.  I think she was nervous at first, but all it took was one run for her to exclaim "Can we do it one more time daddy?"

Mer and I helped her to make her first snowman.  Admittedly, we used a less orthodox approach - rather than roll wet snow into large balls, we simply shoveled snow into a bid pile and gave it a face! 

Samara also tried skating for the first time.  We took a roadtrip to Guelph this past weekend to visit Dennis, Mary and their brood.  Turns out Dennis had built a small rink in his yard, and had a pair of those skates that you strap onto your shoes.  Samara was game so we slapped them on and put her on the ice.

She did well when she tried.  We walked around the rink and managed not to fall.  However, she was the soon asking "Apba, can I take the skates off now?" and seemed to enjoy spending her time mucking around in the snow, or hanging around the hockey net.

I've included some video for your entertainment.

Goofin' Around

Samara is showing her developing sense of humour.  She will often say "I like jokes".  I don't know whether she knows what jokes are, I just know she loves to laugh.

She is at her funniest, when she doesn't mean to be, and when she is speaking earnestly about something (e.g., while listening to CBC radio: "did you hear that?"...."what Samara?"..."they said what apba said when I don't go to sleep like apba asks"...."what did they say Samara?"....."consequences!").  But she is also funny when she goofs around.  Yesterday we were at Pizza Nova waiting to pick up dinner.  There was music playing over the speaker, so Samara just started doing some kind of wiggle dance by herself.  I started to laugh, which snapped her out of whatever head space she was in, and she stopped.  So I started dancing and she continued on, and soon we were doing all sorts of silly dances.

I took these shots one day when were just messing around the house.  I simply said, "when I count to 3, make a face" - and she did!

Samara's 3rd Birthday

Just as Samara was coming down off the high of the holidays, it was time to get ready for her birthday!  Samara had recently attended several birthday parties for friends and was curious to ask what her birthday would be like.

Mer and I had a bit of struggle.  On the rational side, it was hard for us to justify throwing $200 - $300 for a 3-year old's birthday.  On the emotional side, we wanted her to have a fun and special day and didn't want her to feel that she was somehow less loved because her birthday was not at a Gymboree, or had goodie bags, or was not like her friends' parties.

In the end, we decided to host the party at home.  We invited family and friends with kids, to drop in for a couple of hours.  The night before, Mer and I were getting things ready, re-arranging the house, cleaning, prepping food, and decorating.  Honestly, we were both wiped out by the time we went to bed (late!).

The next morning, Samara was up early (as she has been recently doing).  I carried her downstairs and asked her to close her eyes until we got down.  At the bottom of the stairs, I asked her to open her eyes and she was just thrilled! There were balloons and letters that read "Happy Birthday Samara" taped to the wall.  She said "I love you daddy" and I immediately felt silly for having doubts about whether she'd like her party.

Once Mer came down, we had a birthday hug and some breakfast before getting ready for the guests to arrive.  Here's a video snippet of her party.

Sisters

Samara and Talia are growing with each passing day and while it's too early for them to interact fully, we love watching them together.  Samara never misses a chance to give her little sister a hug or kiss - when she wakes up in the morning, when she returns home from daycare, when it's time to go to sleep, even while Talia is sleeping.

Her expression is one of concern when Talia cries and she immediately says, "Oh no!  Talia is crying.  I think she needs some breast milk!"  I just hope her empathy persists into her teens ;-)

Samara has bestowed Talia with the nickname "bumble bee" - we don't know why or how, she just did.  We like it, so call her that as a term of endearment as well.  Now we just need to find a children's book about a "monkey" and a "bumblebee" and the girls will be thrilled!

Ear Infection

Over the holidays, Samara developed a fever and a cough so we thought a cold or flu and tried to make her comfortable until it ran its course.  However, after 5 days, when there was no break in the fever and her temp actually got worse, we decided to take her to hospital.


Turns out she had an ear infection.  Poor kid was trying to be so brave - she hardly complained, and took her meds like a champ.  We had to give her antibiotics every 8 hours, so when we put her to sleep, she knew we'd have to wake her up 5 hours later and would say "Apba, when you come to give me medicine, I will do this.." and she would open her mouth as wide as she could!


One day on the antibiotics and she was bright eyed, bushy tailed and her old self again!  These photos were taken near her worst.  She had little energy and felt weak and ill.  We completely caved on any rules we had about watching cartoons and let her have all the "Dora the Explorer" she could handle.  I download an entire season's worth, and she plowed through those in a matter of days!


Mer and I are both sooooo tired of Dora, but Samara could watch her over and over and over and over and over and over....you get the point.

Mooney Christmas

We had the good fortune to host the Mooneys this Christmas as well.  It wasn't the whole clan, but it was great to be able to spend some time with Grandad, Jill & John, and Ashley & Duncan.

As always, the stockings were over the top (see Samara wedged in between 2 stockings...well, I guess it looks more like the stockings barfed out a bunch a stuff), but great fun.

It was nice to meet Duncan for the first time, and we hope to see more of him in the future!

Little Family Christmas

This year's Christmas was special for our family for several reasons, but foremost in my mind, Talia had her first Christmas and we, as a family, had a day to ourselves!

Amid the hectic holiday schedule of visits, we had a morning where we didn't need to be anywhere and wasn't expecting anyone.  So, we had a slow start to the day, a nice breakfast, and we opened a few presents and just enjoyed each other's company.

Samara received a wonderful robe from her aunts (Madeleine and Catherine), which matched Mer's quite nicely.  She wore it around the house the whole day!  Honestly, I thought the two of them could have entered a "mom & daughter" contest and would have won the "bathrobe competition" hands down ;-)