Whoops! 3 Years!

Wow - I had forgotten this blog existed! It's time to start posting again as lots has changed since I last logged in here, and I really want to keep a record of the kids' growing years. Thankfully, all their birth stories are accounted for!

Noah Stephen Kostrey was born at home on January 11, 2014 . He is going on 6 weeks old, and we all love him to bits, though he doesn't let me get much sleep. He is gaining like crazy - about an ounce a day at this point, though I'm sure that will slow down. He has just started smiling and cooing.

Keagan is in Grade 1 and Annabelle is in JK. Annabelle's personality hasn't changed a whole lot from when she was a baby. She still loves cats, yogurt, people, and her mom and dad. She is very sociable and silly. She loves green, to say "farted", she calls her school friends "my girl," and is emotional. She has started playing Minecraft with Keagan. She also loves horses, and junk food. She's not a great health-food eater like Keagan is. Most meals are a big fight. She loves her teacher, Mrs.Edgar. She and Keagan are both very good swimmers. They are both in swimming lessons at the Y. Her favourite movie is Frozen. She loves to sing along with all the songs, but especially Let It Go. We just signed her up for gymnastics today.

Keagan is very smart, and is an excellent reader. He has spelling tests in grade 1, and so far has only gotten one word wrong altogether, in total. He was also a reader during his school's Remembrance Day assembly. He likes Lego and Skylanders, yet mostly likes to play Minecraft or other games on the computer or iPad. He loves having a new baby brother, and is very good with him. I think the novelty of Noah is starting to wear off a wee bit with the kids, but they still love him to pieces. Keagan is a good eater, and it is easy to persuade him to eat his meals. He likes to play with his friends at church and school, but is also a bit of a homebody. He often comes home with silly songs or sayings he's heard from his friends. He is a very loving boy, but is still strong-willed and sometimes hard to reign in!

Steve works from home for a web development company, and I work for central CCAC. I am on maternity leave, and am hoping to make the best of it!

March Break Adventures

The kids and I have been super busy this week visiting with all their cousins! Faith and the kids came up over the weekend and stayed until Wednesday, Ken and Michelle were here with their kids from Wednesday to Thursday, and Ang arrived with her kids yesterday (Thursday) and is staying until Sunday.

We've been busy going to the park (the weather is finally starting to warm up!), McDonald's Play Place, swimming at the YMCA, going to Ikea (the three boys played in the play place for an hour while Mom, Ang and I shopped ... Annabelle stayed home with Bekka), and just playing playing playing.

All of this activity makes Keagan flourish and thrive. He is much easier to reign in this week, and is not as defiant. After Ikea today, Keagan went to Mom and Dad's so he could play with Emmett and Liam and eat supper there. During his bath, I asked him what he did, what he ate, etc., and he actually had a full conversation with me ... answered everything without any teeth pulling. It was a breath of fresh air!! He told me he ate fish and fries, and had peach yogurt for dessert. I am so proud of him; he is such a great kid, and I need to remind myself of days like these on our bad days.

Annabelle started walking on my birthday. She must have seen Elizabeth doing it like a pro, and decided it was her time to shine. She is practically running now! Her body is often faster than her feet, though, and she has done more than one forehead-plant on the hardwood floor. She also does little goofy walks. She has her "penguin walk" (term coined by Bekka) wherein she puts her arms behind her. She has her air-punching walk, wherein she punches the air while she walks. Then she has her hand flipping-walk, wherein she flips her hands over. Needless to say, all of her walks are pretty darn cute.

She has also started saying a few words. She says kitty cat (kee-ka), what's that (sounds a lot like kitty cat), bye (bah!), and tonight she started to mimic me saying "yeah" while nodding her head (ie: Was Annabelle a good girl today? Yeah?). I weighed her the other day, and she was a whopping 23 lbs and 30.5 inches long ... much more petite than Keagan was at her age!

We saw a dietician the other day since I'm still a bit worried about her fluid intake. She still wants to breastfeed about two times/day, but isn't drinking much else. She will drink 8 oz. additional fluid on top of that ... diluted juice, milk, and our latest addition was Yop yogurt drink diluted with homo milk. She seems to like that, so let's hope it gets her drinking more! Aside from that, she is a happy and healthy little girl ... albeit a little cranky at times, probably related to teething.

Keagan is just shy of 40 lbs, still, and since he is so active, he might be that way for a while. I was looking forward to buying him a couple booster seats ... one for each vehicle ... but I don't want to rush him into one before it's safe. So we will just have to sit tight and wait.

I am so looking forward to spring and then summer. I've enrolled the kids in one program each (Keagan is in a sports class at the Y, and Annabelle is in a music class through the city, only because the Y doesn't offer much for her age group). I can't wait to see how they do in their classes. It's hard to take them to the same ones anymore, since Keagan is so very active and pretty disruptive in drop-in programs like circle time at the OEYC and story time at the library. Annabelle loves those programs, so I may have to find a way to make it work for me to take her to them. I might just have to sit tight and wait for September, when Keagan goes to school every other day (crazy!!!!)

Bekka is living here ... has been since the beginning of February. While we've had a couple kinks to work out here and there, I think we are pretty comfortable with her around, now. It is quite a luxury, actually, and I think we'll be pretty sad to see her go in July. She helps with the kids, the cooking, and the cleaning.

Life was a bit glum for a while there ... I actually had anti-depressants prescribed for me on Monday ... but I've found I haven't needed to start taking them the past couple days. I think I will just hold off and see if my anxiety/depression is just seasonal. Plus, I can't take antidepressants while Annabelle is still breastfeeding, so it is on hold anyway.

Life has been looking up, and I'm excited for great things this spring!

I'm going to try to post every day, so I can keep up with how fast the kids are growing!

Today is Sunday, and we had an adventurous morning in Waumba Land, Keagan and I did. I swear it's going to be a full moon tonight, the kids were all hyped up! I am having such a hard time disciplining Keagan lately. He is such a strong personality, we clash so often. No amount of spanks or time-outs seem to have any effect on him.

Steve also says he has a strong personality, and that the kids seem to do what he does. I don't know if it's that, or if Keagan has a way with making other kids spazzy when he gets spazzy! He still doesn't nap, and I really think he needs it. He's taken to getting up at 7:30 now, which is a shock from our 8-8:30 am. Many parents would be jealous of our 7:30 wake-up, but man, I need to discipline myself to go to bed earlier!!

This morning, Keagan told Steve, "Daddy, I love you so much." It melts my heart to see that our words have an effect on him. I tell Keagan that I love him so much quite often. On the other hand, it's a bit scary to realize how much of a sponge he is!

I am so looking forward to Keagan going to junior kindergarten. Many parents say they will cry on their kid's first day, and maybe I will too since it will be the end of an era. But I also think it will be good for Keagan. He seems to be needing more stimulation lately, and it's hard to give that to him since Annabelle still has a super long nap every day, forcing us to be home all afternoon most days. Today in Waumba Land, I was amazed that the other teacher (Leisha) was able to reign Keagan in, have him sit down for songs, and actions to boot. Steve noticed that as soon as I sat close to Keagan, he started to get out of control.

As an aside ... Annabelle started taking a few steps two nights ago (Friday the 25th). Actually, she was walking between Bekka and I, when she decided to veer off the path and walk all the way from her room to Keagan's bed, without falling. We were amazed! I can't wait to see her little toddling body start making a habit of it!

Anyway, I need to get some much-needed sleep before a night shift tonight!

It's Winter Time Again!

Well, this past year proved to be too chaotic to blog! It was a whirlwind of a year ... a big blur that I can hardly make heads or tails of!

My little guy is not so little any more. He's 3, and has just potty trained this past week. It took a lot of gummy worms, but it was worth it! He is not quite poop trained, but we're getting there.

My little girl is almost one. I can't believe how fast time flies when you're busy busy busy! She weighs just under 21 lbs, and is such a lightweight compared to Keagan. She was sick for the first time this past week ... puking and everything. Poor little thing. I gave her 1/2 a Gravol suppository, and she seems to be much better today.

I started back at work again on November 12th. It was so hard to return back as my previous FTE (0.7), especially since Annabelle still seems so little, and she refuses to take a bottle (yup, she's still breastfeeding). So, I dropped my FTE down to 0.6, and while it's still hard to be away from the kids for two shifts in a row, it's more manageable. It's still super hard to commute, though, so I am making changes to try to work closer to home. I enrolled in the Oncology program at Georgian, hoping to get a head-start for a job in the new cancer centre at RVH. I am also thinking of applying to the oncology unit at Sick Kids, but haven't made the move yet to call the manager.

Anyway, I'm out for tonight. Here's hoping I'll be blogging finer details instead of broad updates from now on!

Fun ... and the Sun!

Today Keagan had his little friend, Levi, over for the morning. It was so cute watching them play together! At one point when I went to the washroom, I heard Levi calling, "Keagan's mom, where are you?" Wow. I can't believe that I am now a child's mom...you know, when other kids don't refer to you as yourself, but as someone's mom. So weird. I remember doing that as a kid, and thinking my friend's mom was just the juice pourer old lady in the background. Well, that's me now!

We were able to get outside today as the weather was beautiful and sunny. It's amazing how much little boys can eat after playing so hard. I served "green juice" with lunch. Keagan can't get enough of this stuff. Green juice is a smoothie combination of apple juice, a banana, and a big handful of spinach. It tastes great!

This past Monday to Tuesday, Bekka came over for the first time in almost 6 weeks. She helped me paint Annabelle's room a pretty colour called "Silverberry." That's a nice name for purple. I am so proud to have a purple room for my little girl! I can't wait to arrange the furniture in there.

Anyway ... my bed calls. I am so tired! And will be up again in about 3 hours. Good night!

Whew ... Music Again!

The past few days have been tough for me. Exhaustion set in, and everything came to a head. Like a big zit, it popped (yum!). So, things are feeling normal again. Actually a bit better. I have my music back on my iTunes folder, thanks to my dear hubby. It's funny how everything feels better when there's a soundtrack in the background.

Now I'm listening to some upbeat Natasha Bedingfield, and even writing seems to come easier. I can hear a toddler whining somewhere in the distance, but it is muffled by the music.

Discharged

Annabelle's last midwife appointment was yesterday as midwives discharge the babies born through their practice at around 6 weeks (she will be 7 weeks tomorrow). She was 10 lbs 13 oz and 21.7 inches long (55 cm). This means she is up 2 3/4 lbs and 2 inches since she was born. She has been gaining 1 ounce/day, which is pretty standard for healthy babies. (Keagan was 12 lbs and 22.5 inches at 6 weeks.)

She is a very sweet and content little girl, but she is higher maintenance than Keagan was as a baby. She eats every 1 1/2 - 3 hours during the day (3-5 hours at night). Keagan ate every 3 hours on the dot, and was sleeping 6 hour stretches at night by 2 months (although this didn't last forever). Annabelle likes to be cuddled a lot, and will cry and pout if there is no one in her sight.

The handy thing about having a two-year-old around is that he can replace the soother ("soover"), and even his face will brighten up her previous misery of having nobody around to entertain her. The only problem is that those two-year-old fingers often end up in her eyes.