Growing up . . .

I haven't taken a lot of pictures over the last few weeks since my last post (I go through these dry spells!) but I do feel like there's lots to tell about my little family:).

Adam has been growing up in so many ways! We still don't know a lot about his personality, things he likes etc., but he is adding daily to his vocabulary, and continues to expand his play all the time. There was a time when all he really cared about was his musical toys, but he now gets right involved when Lynsey is playing with blocks, or a game with cards, or her kitchen food (this intrusion, as you can imagine, isn't ALWAYS welcome, but she does try to play with him when possible:)). His pretend play has expanded a lot. He now sometimes pretends to eat the play food, gives dolls a bottle, exclaiming that they're thirsty, and cuddles and talks to his teddy bears. It's so cute to see him break out a bit and express himself a bit more - I know there's lots more where that came from, too! He counts to 10 with no mistakes and is getting much better at listening and following instructions. I can now sort of guide him when we're walking somewhere (although he is still a bit unpredictable) and he understands a lot better when we tell him it's time to eat, or time to go the van, etc. The other day we told him it was time to eat and he says, "Go downstairs, eat some supper" and started on his way down. He definitely has the word "more" down pat as well! He's becoming a bit pickier at meal times, requesting fries and other goodies when he has something completely different in front of him, but I'm hoping this will just be a phase (please be a phase!).

It seems our boy is also becoming more and more aware of his, shall we say, calls of nature! The other day, Brian took him out of the tub and he was running around naked as he often does. He started whining and talking about "pee on potty" and grabbing himself like he was uncomfortable, with a few drips coming out. Brian tried putting him on the potty but he immediately climbed off and continued to whine about "go pee". So Brian asked him if he wanted a diaper, and he takes off for the room with the diapers affirming, "yeah diaper" - so Brian puts one on. Not a minute later, Brian checked and his diaper was wet. Interesting I figure. No, I'm not taking this as a sign that I need to start potty training (I don't even need to refer back to past blog posts - I remember it all too well!) but I just find it interesting that he is becoming more aware of when he needs to go. Who knows - maybe God will have mercy on me and he WILL be easier to train than Lynsey! Oh please let that be the case!:)

Lynsey is still doing fantastic in preschool - such a social butterfly:). She has become very interested in doing activities and sticker books with special instructions, and has practiced her colouring a lot. She loves to take the train tracks apart on her train table and enjoys the challenge of making her own track with no dead ends (this is very difficult to do, but she tries really hard!). She still struggles with knowing her limits with Adam and when to just stop what she's doing, but we're hoping this will start tapering off. Adam has actually started telling her himself a few times to stop, so hopefully as he gets bigger and more communicative (and maybe even stands up for himself once in a while!) this problem will just go away on it's own. She loves to try and negotiate with us, especially at mealtimes (bite sizes, how many bites, how much healthy food she has to eat before she can have a treat, etc.).

I have to start Christmas shopping this week - what to do, what to do. Normally I don't have any trouble buying stuff for the kids, but I don't just want to buy random toys . . . trying to figure out what fits with each of their personalities! Lynsey will be easier than Adam - we have yet to learn much about his personality:). I'm sure I'll come up with something!

Wedding fun!

I had meant to do a post concluding our trip on Monday or Tuesday after we got back, but that obviously didn't happen so I will update you now! We had a good last day on the beach on Sunday. We discovered a really nice beach about two minutes from our condo (we thought there were only the three Kamaole beaches, but there was a very nice cove just south of them!) and had another nice beach morning! The kids were not quite as content as they had been earlier in the week - we figured they were probably getting a bit tired of the beach and/or were getting a bit homesick. They still had fun, were just a bit higher maintenance! Our poor girl Lynsey - she wanted to try boogie boarding, but just didn't have enough courage. She would be all gung-ho to try, and then as soon as she got to the water, she got upset and stalked away pouting saying she didn't want to do it anymore. I felt bad for her - she so badly wanted to try it! Maybe next time we do a beach vacation she'll have more courage:). We spent some time at the pool after Adam's nap as well - saw the most beautiful sunset on our last day, too! Got everything cleaned up and headed to the airport!

Lynsey fell asleep in the rental car and basically slept until we got to Vancouver - very nice for all of us! Adam did not fall asleep in the rental car. He melted down in the airport - the kind of meltdown that I had nightmares about. We were in the security line and he was just screaming - and they still didn't rush us to the front of the line! We got through security okay (Lynsey stayed asleep through the whole ruckus somehow!) and I gave him a bit of Gravol - I was pretty desperate. He fell asleep after some walking with the stroller, and then he slept until Vancouver as well (Praise the Lord!). Brian and I did not sleep so well - Brian thinks he might have slept an hour or two, but I dozed for 20 minutes at most. Got to Vancouver at 7am their time, and the flight from Vancouver to Calgary was okay. Adam was a bit restless, but it was only an hour long, so we survived! It was nice to be home again:). All in all, a wonderful vacation, and I don't regret bringing the kids at all, despite a few hitches along the way!

We were home for a few days, and then on Thursday headed off to Edmonton for Mike's wedding! It was a beautiful wedding, although Adam did not do well during the ceremony:(. Brian's Mom had arranged for some babysitting during the ceremony in one of the hotel rooms, but I knew he would just hate it there and honestly thought he would do alright with me in the ceremony. Well, we walked in to the ceremony room (which was small and very loud as people were visiting before the wedding) and it didn't take long for him to be completely done there. Snacks didn't do it, holding him wouldn't help, singing to him wasn't working, he wanted out and that was that. I was outside the room with him for the entire ceremony. He was perfectly happy to stomp away on the dance floor in the reception room and climb up and down the stairs in the lobby. It was pretty disappointing for me:(. I almost wished I had put him in the babysitting, although I know he would have been a lot more miserable (and so would the poor babysitters!) - it would have been a purely selfish maneuver, but part of me still wished I had done it! The family pictures did not go too well either - he screamed the entire time. It was a frustrating experience. I felt so disappointed because he's rarely like that, and of course he's like that when we really need him NOT to be! Oh, well - such is life with an almost two year old!

The wedding babysitters came to Brian's parents' place to babysit our kids and Bobbi and Jer's kids for the reception - how wonderful that was! I was able to enjoy some time between the ceremony and reception visiting with family and friends, and was able to enjoy the reception SOO much more than the ceremony! The food was great, the dance was fun - they had salsa dancing lessons, which was really fun! A good night all in all:).

Now we are back home and I'm kind of happy to get back into a routine again! Brian and I are going to Banff this weekend for one night for his Christmas party which should be really nice - I know we just got back from vacation, but Brian and I could use a night alone together! Sooo thankful for my friends Coraleah and Larissa that are coming to babysit for the night - you guys rock!:)

One and a half days left!

Our vacation is coming to a close . . . sadly, of course, but I think we'll be ready to head home tomorrow. The kids are doing well, but we're seeing some signs of needing to get back to a routine. Our new 4 year old has been struggling with listening the last few days, thinking she is suddenly old enough to make all her own decisions . . . a little frustrating to say the least! Adam is doing really well, although not sleeping a whole lot - he actually skipped his nap completely a few days ago! With all the sun and water play, you'd think he'd be napping for hours on end, but nope! Oh, well - soon enough, we'll be back in Calgary and it will feel like we never left I'm sure:).

We had a great day celebrating our little Lynsey at the Maui Ocean Centre on Thursday. She really enjoyed the sea turtles and the sharks - definitely the highlights! For Adam, the highlight was the waterfall outside the shark centre. He was there for ages, just dipping his hand in, doing his excited dance. It was here that we discovered that our memory card for our camera had become "read-only" and we had to pay the exorbitant tourist price for a new memory card. This hurt, but the thing that hurts the MOST is that this is not the first memory card we've purchased on this trip! On our trip to Hana on Monday, we had already driven quite a ways when I discovered that after uploading pictures onto the laptop, I had forgotten to put the memory card back into the camera. I can't even tell you how annoyed I was. Sooo we bought just a 2GB one thinking, it will be nice to have a spare one in the camera bag for emergencies. Well do you think we had this emergency memory card in the bag at the Ocean Centre? Nope, it was sitting in the computer back at the condo. Nice one Sarah! Anyway, we just bought a good memory card this time so we don't have a bunch of little ones and still have to buy a bigger one when we get home. ANYWAY, I don't want the memory card fiasco to be what we remember about this day, so I'll move on! We went back to the condo for the afternoon and of course, we had to hit the hot tub in the evening:). We had some cake and ice cream when we got back (which Adam appreciated a lot more than we thought - he hasn't showed much interest in ice cream before). It was a good day all in all!

Yesterday we went to the Wailea Beach again, thinking this was our best bet for some success (as it had been the last two times we were there!). Unfortunately, it was really windy, and while we seem to be able to deal with some cloud cover, wind was not well received by the kiddos. Adam just cried and I held him for a long time - he actually almost fell asleep on my lap! Lynsey had some fun with some other kids, but she was asking to go home quite frequently. So we gave up and came back to the condo after about an hour and a half of trying to make a go of it. We went to the pool where it was still windy, but much better for the kids because there was no sand whipping around and they could hit the hot tub if they got cold. They loved their time at the pool, so we were glad we aborted on the beach. We went for a nice dinner (our first nice dinner, so a bit of a treat:)) and of course, the hot tub after! It's looking like we aren't going to miss an evening at the hot tub!

Today has been a good day so far. We went to the pool in the morning instead of the beach - the forecast wasn't looking great, although it definitely wasn't as windy as yesterday. We decided that since the kids seem to enjoy the pool just as much as the beach, it was a safer bet. They did have a lot of fun, and so did Brian and I:). We're going to go for one more beach day tomorrow before we head back tomorrow night - crossing our fingers for some nice weather! Really the wind (and obviously torrential rain which is really infrequent) are the only things that can ruin a morning at the beach, so we just really need the wind to stay away.