We're 18 Months Old!

We're 18 Months Old Now!
Some Recent Pics...

We love to make a mess!

We're not identical!

KK

Daddy & Princess

Kailen loves to build towers

Ariya & JJ

Waking up is hard to do!

Walking around at the GG's house

Mommy and Ariya & KK

JJ & Ariya love to dance

Mid-Summer Update

Its been a few weeks since the last post - lots of new and wonderful learning's to share.

Ariya has decided that she likes crawling still and tends to prefer it over walking. Once in a while she'll take a few steps, but I guess she's gotten so fast at crawling that she still prefers it for now. Mommy and daddy are enjoying this time because pretty soon we'll have three little bi-pedal toddlers running in three different directions - boy is it ever becoming difficult to keep up. Ariya's vocabulary is starting to expand; some new words include 'bear', 'apple', 'yes', and 'boo'. She's a wicked dancer and has inherited mommy's dance moves. When she hears a good beat come on, her shoulders start to automatically move and her head starts to bob...so cute! Ariya has become fairly aggressive these days - she has no hesitation in pulling her brothers' hair if they upset her. Her brother's don't generally retaliate, but it's something we'll need to work on with her.

Kailen is such a teddy bear. He's in the habit of coming into our bed at 5AM everyday. We think he's going through a bit of a phase. Ariya and Jaiden tend to take his toys a lot, and Kailen generally doesn't complain - he's a softy :) Kailen's vocabulary is expanding a lot too. When he's getting in trouble with mommy and daddy he shows his humour by playing hide and seek and popping out with a big 'boo'. He's so good at distracting us and making us laugh. He also say 'apple', 'done', and his favourite song is 'ring around the rosy' where we generally pause at the 'husha husha' part so that he can complete it ...he loves singing 'husha husha' and the other seemed to have learned the same off of him. Kailen also enjoys singing 'ba ba blacksheep' and 'twinkle twinkle little star'. He has become super social at playgroups making lots of friends.

Jaiden's latest is that he's learned his sister's name...'Ariya'. Every morning when he wakes up, you can hear him in his crib calling out to Ariya. If she's away in the other room she'll respond with baby talk...so amazing. Jaiden can also point to who 'Kailen' is but can't say his name yet. JJ is also an amazing dancer often stamping his feet to a good song, and shrugging his shoulders to his favourite songs. He's still obsessed with 'cars' and 'balls'. He also started putting two words together; 'look car', & 'ball up'. JJ is growing like a weed these days - he doesn't fit into many of his sleepers anymore.

It's such a cute stage - they are interacting and doing new things everyday. They all need a lot of attention which makes for two tired parents at the end of the day, but at least things are typically better on the sleep front (albeit last night was a flashback to 5 months ago ;( )

Ariya is Walking!

Ariya Bella is walking...yeah! She's took her first steps this past week - video pending in the next blog posting.

We are so proud of our little princess; it was only a few weeks ago that we were worried about her but it's simply amazing to see how quickly she's developed since we've incremented her iron intake to remedy her iron deficiency. Not only has she taken her first steps, Ariya's has shown lots of progress in other ways - she now readily stacks blocks, can do the sort-shaper activities, passes the ball, and helps undress herself amongst other things! What's also really cool, is that we've been trying to teach Ariya to stop sitting in the 'W' position (on her knees with both leg spread out behind in the shape of a 'W') - her physiotherapist suggested that she was doing it too much and that we should keep discouraging it as it could affect her posture in the long run...I didn't really think we could teach her to stop sitting like given that it's her favourite stance, but it's amazing she did learn to stop doing it! Now every time we catch her in the 'W' we say, "Ariya sit properly, sit up"...and she corrects herself immediately. It feels really cool to be able to communicate with her and teach her something.

Jaiden continues to learn all sorts of new things. He now knows his body parts and can identify his eyes, head, mouth, feet, tummy, and nose - in fact he loves squeezing daddy's big nose! He's obsessed with cars. He says 'caaaarrrr' about 150 times a days and carries his favourite book (a book based on Disney's 'Cars' movie), with him all day long. Recently, JJ has developed the habit of taking toys/books from his siblings, so we are trying to teach him not to do so and become more accustomed with the idea of sharing. It's still a bit early for time out, but daddy gave him one yesterday - mommy was quick to inform daddy that timeouts should be very short at this age :)

Kailen is really into books these days. You can often catch him finding his favourite book, 'Olivia', and flipping pages by himself in a corner away from the others. KK is certainly a very generous boy - he shares his toys when the others want to play with them without much fuss. Kailen talks a lot of baby talk these days - he's got his own language and this really sweet voice.

Recent visitors:

we've had the pleasure of having some guests recently! Uncle Jeff and Aunty Joy and Elodie came by on Canada Day - we all made the trek to Parliament Hill along with 300k others to see the Duke and Duchess of of Cambridge. Uncle Ben and Aunty Ros came by this past weekend as well as Shainu Aunty - we had lots of fun!

KK:

Summer Fun!

Fun at the park with mommy!

teeter todder

JJ loves carrying his spoon everywhere!

JJ also loves the water!

Jaiden having fun at the park

three babies in the backyard

Amanda aunty and Kailen
JJ and his rock star hair

Ariya Bella and Daddy

Kailen the rock star

KK

Princess Bella

We can’t stay small forever!

I’ve probably mentioned this a thousand times before, but it’s really hard to fathom how quickly the little munchkins are growing up. We’re trying our best to absorb the cuteness every day since this will be our first and last time raising little babies :) This is certainly the cutest stage so far – they are expressive, interactive, and emotional little beings. Geeta and I sometimes call them our ‘little creatures’ because they are like baby animals or little puppies that do all kinds of cute puppy’ish things.

What’s new?

Jaiden’s vocabulary is growing by the day. He’s got this obsession with balls – he’s carries his favourite orange ball with him everywhere and will approach anyone in sight to show it off....”baaalllll, baaallll”. He’s also starting to point to things now and he often tells a story in baby language while pointing to things outside. When both Jaiden and Kailen drop things (often on purpose), you get a double ‘oh oh’. They also both love saying ‘up’ when they throw things.

Kailen has got a new dance – he loves music and often stamps his feet when he dances. He’s got a love for the outdoors and he tells you when he wants to go outside by bringing his shoes to you. Kailen has been very clingy lately; it seems like he’s going through a stage. He often wakes up at 5AM calling out for us to bring him into our bed. We’ve been trying to resist giving in since it tends to become a habit pretty quickly these days and it’s really tough to have the munchkins in our bed at this stage – they love to kick and crawls all over us making it tough to get any real zzzzz’s.

Ariya is standing up more and more and can do it on her own now. She takes steps when she’s got the support of a hand or furniture. Recently, we pulled her crib out of the room from the other two and into my office so that we can sleep train her. It was sad to separate the threesome for the first time but I guess its part of growing up! We’ve been trying to wean her off her nightly feed and have so far been successful in eliminating the 3AM feed – thank god..Finally more continuous sleep for mommy and daddy! Earlier this week, we learned that she’s got pretty low iron which was causing some swelling especially around her eyes lids in the morning. We’ve had to put her on iron supplements and get her back on iron-fortified formula for at least one feed per day.

Daadi (Grandma Gera) is in town for a short visit – the babies seem to remember her and have been really good. They love playing with daadi and we’re happy that she came for a short visit.

Ariya being funny

Ariay and cousin Rhea

Rhea and Kailen
Anu Masi (aunt) and Jaiden

We Love the Outdoors!

The last few weeks have been lots of fun for the kiddos - they've really showed how much they love the outdoors. Kailen often brings his shoes to us to show that he wants to go outside.

Recently, we built an outdoor play set for the munchkins. It has three swings so that no one has to wait their turn :) The kids are really enjoying it. We also got a little kiddie pool for them and they LOVE the water. Jaiden especially loves it and it's often a struggle to pull him away.

Daddy is away on a business trip next week and will miss the timbits a lot. Mommy will be holding down the fort with some extra help from the nanny's.

Recently, we had a Dr's appointment for the little ones and we were told that we need to start weaning Ariya off the milk at night (her bothers have been going without it for a while now) - that's going to be one heck of a challenge because Ariya demands her milk at least twice a night....if we can get her off ...mommy and daddy will reap the rewards of a continuous night's sleep....aaahhhh...how nice that would be!

Babies First Visit to the Ottawa Tulip Festival

Last weekend we took the kiddos to the Ottawa Tulip Festival at Dow's Lake.

They had a blast...and loved ripping up off those tulip flowers (although we tried to cover it up) :) It was really cute seeing three little munchkins walk across the park admiring all those tulips. Ironically, daddy learned to walk at this very same place when he was a baby.

Mommy and daddy started constructing the kids' play set last weekend. We are almost finished (will post some pictures soon).