That's What She Said

Grace:

Me: Grace, what happened?
Grace: She fell.
Me: Did you push Anna?
Grace: No, I just moved her out of my way.

Grace: Uuggghhhh!! What? I'm not Murr.

Grace: Give me a horsey ride!
Me: You should give me a horsey ride instead.
Grace: I can't. I have a baby in my belly. I can't bend.



Anna:
Socks
Boots
Hat
Hello Mommy! Hi Mommy!
Hello Daddy! Hi Daddy!
Lights (she loves flicking the light switch on and off)
Meow
Sip (she loves having sips of water from a big glass)
Bang-gee (Blankie)
Daydee/Gaygee (Gracie)
Up-eee-oh (her version of "up we go!" usually said while holding her arms up to be picked up)
Weee? (this is one of my favorites lately. Whenever she's on the swing or the slide, I'm always saying "weee!" so now when she wants to get in the swing or go on the slide she will point to it and say "wee?" like a question, it's so cute).
Keen up! (singing along to the clean up song)

Spoke Too Soon

I posted last week that I was glad the girls seemed to be on the mend after a couple weeks of being sick. Apparently I spoke too soon and jinxed us. Last Friday we had a great day at the reptile show, then began the journey to CB around supper time. We've never left that late in the day to make the 3+ hour trip, but figured we'd try it so that we wouldn't have any travel time on Saturday and more time to visit family. The girls fell asleep shortly after we left, and we decided that we'd stop for supper about an hour from Memé and Papa's. The idea was that even though we'd be waking the girls up, they would need to eat and hopefully stay awake for the rest of the drive and then still go to bed at a decent hour when we got there.
Well. Anna woke up anyway before we stopped, but we woke Grace up. She was fine, happy, and said she was hungry. We waited for our table and the girls were happily chatting away. After we sat down and Grace's chicken nuggets came, she poked at them for a few minutes before finally taking a bite, chewed for a minute, and spit it out. We had barely gotten the words "are you ok?" out before she threw up all over the table. I scooped her up and took her to the washroom and got her cleaned up and changed her clothes. Brian and I had barely touched our meals but we gathered our stuff and got out of there as fast as we could (we did clean everything up as best we could before we left, and told our server what had happened).
I slept with Grace that night with a bucket beside our bed, just in case, but she was fine and showed no signs of sickness for the rest of the weekend.

On Monday night, Anna woke up with a fever and started throwing up. It was a long night for all of us (except Grace; I am so thankful that she's such a heavy sleeper). It turned out to be a 24 hour bug and she's been back to herself since yesterday.

This has been a rough winter for us - hurry up Spring!

Visit to the Reptile Show

This was our 3rd time visiting Little Ray's Reptile Show when they've been in town. We've enjoyed it each time and it's interesting to see how Grace will react to seeing the animals. The first time we went, she was 14 months old and didn't want to touch any of the animals except for a vulture, of all things. She had a bit of a fascination with birds at the time. The second time we went was shortly after she turned 2 and she was really into it and touched anything she could. This time she was hesitant again and didn't touch many of the animals. She still had a great time and was really excited to see everything. It's interesting to see how things change at different ages!
We brought Lennan with us too; this was our first excursion with the three kids, now that we have an extra carseat! Anna loved watching the lemurs but didn't get too close to many of the reptiles. Lennan didn't care much for the animals but had a blast running around and pushing the stroller.

On our way!

Gracie being brave

Anna not sure what to think of the alligator

Lennan checking out the lemurs

Anna loved watching the lemurs jump around

We went on a school day so there wasn't a big crowd. Lots of room to run!

The girls keeping their distance

Lennan didn't get too close

Grace watching the tortoises. "Are they getting a piggy back ride?"

Checking out the big tortoise!

Thankful on Thursday

I almost don't want to say it, but I'm thankful that we seem to be over the sickness in our house. The girls both still have runny noses, but I can deal with that! I'm also thankful for my amazing husband (always, but even more this past week) for sharing all the sleepless nights, helping to clean up pukey toddlers, and doing mountains of laundry while the girls were sick.

Sick

It's been a rough week here at the Sampson residence. The girls have been battling colds for over a week now. Then for 5 nights in a row Anna woke up vomiting in the middle of the night. It was so bizarre - she was her normal, happy self all day long but would wake up crying and throwing up in the night. The first night, we figured maybe she had gagged on all of the mucus from her cold. After 2 nights, we thought maybe it was something she ate. So we tried only giving her foods she was familiar with for a few days but she was still waking up vomiting. Then it stopped. Weird, huh? She has been drooling a lot and chewing on everything, so now we're thinking maybe it was a combination of the cold and teething, and all the extra mucus and drool that goes along with that. Lovely, isn't it?
Two days ago, Grace started getting sick. It turned out to be a 24 hour flu bug that thankfully, no one else has caught. Poor thing had such a rough night but she was a trooper and tried so hard not to be miserable. She had a 4 hour nap yesterday and both girls are sleeping right now.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we're done with sickness in this house for a while! Now we just need to catch up on our sleep. And laundry.

Wordless Wednesday (Our Family)

"Toys"

Sometimes I wonder why we buy toys at all. For both of the girls, some of their favorite "toys" are not toys at all. Anna could spend hours (well, maybe that's a stretch) playing in the tupperware cupboard, and Grace was the same way at this age. Grace still likes playing with containers, pots, and other kitchen items. When we go to Zilla and Bampers' house there are some toys there, but the girls always gravitate towards the tupperware cupboard there as well. Another big hit was/is those little plastic Easter eggs that open up and you can put things in. Anna loves those things, and so did Grace. Anna also loves the little spoons that came with Grace's tea set. You never know what will keep a kid entertained!

Terrible 3's

I remember as Grace was approaching her second birthday, people (whether it was family, friends, co-workers, or even strangers we met in the grocery store) would say something like "oh, get ready for the terrible two's!" I would just laugh it off, and knew we'd just have to wait and see what happens. It turns out that most of those people were wrong, and a few parent friends of ours seem to be right - all the terrible things that supposedly come along with being two are nothing compared to what happens with your kid hits age three!
I can say that Grace's time as a two year old was not terrible. It was so fun to see her vocabulary develop, watch her learn new things, and really grow into her personality. She was a good listener, well behaved, sweet, and funny. She is still all of those things, but we've learned that apparently there is an unspoken rule that at age three, you must start pushing buttons and pushing limits and trying your parents' patience. Don't get me wrong, Grace is an amazing and wonderful child. She is still very well behaved for the most part, especially in public (thankfully) and she is kind, caring, and loving. But lately, she is definitely trying to push limits and see how far she can get! Not listening, pushing and hitting her sister, yelling at us, seeing what she can get away with. I know this is totally normal and won't last (I hope!) but it's interesting, to say the least.

Holiday Recap

This past holiday season was so much fun! We stayed close to home, for the most part, and it was fairly low-key but so enjoyable. We spent lots of time with family and friends, had great food and treats, and I absolutely loved seeing how excited Grace was about all things Christmas. One thing I didn't do, was take many pictures! Actually, I haven't been picking up the camera near enough these past few months. But here are a few pics of our Christmas:

I posted this one already, but it's cute and I couldn't believe we got a picture with Santa with no tears from either of the girls! 

Posing with Frosty after the Santa photos

Starting to decorate the tree! Grace wanted to put the candy cane ornament on first.

Grace didn't even notice the big gift from Santa at first! She pulled that little box out from under the tree and said "Let's open this one first!"

The girls (especially Grace) love the dollhouse

Christmas morning chaos

We went to Zilla and Bampers' house for Christmas dinner. Bampers and Gracie needed a little rest before we ate.

We hosted the Boxing Day festivities at our house this year. Grace loved having everyone over and showing them her new gifts.

Mike & Kam

That's pretty much it for photos. Like I said, I hardly picked up the camera! Here are a few more from my phone:

A new tradition we started this year - wrapped up all the Christmas books and the girls opened one each night leading up to Christmas Eve. Grace loved this and I'm sure Anna will appreciate it more next year!

This is what Christmas spirit looks like

Another new tradition this year - the Elf on the Shelf. Our elf showed up the day we put up the tree. Her name is Fancy.

Lots of fun in the snow! Grace and Daddy made this cave

Getting pulled around the yard by Uncle Johnny

Snow angels

Grace got a snowman kit for her birthday - such a neat idea! It came with the hat, scarf, nose, eyes, and all the buttons

Gracie decorating the tree

Anna loved the little toilet from the dollhouse! She carried that thing around for days.