Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Five Month Old Marley

My beautiful Marley Moo, today you are five months old. Words cannot express just how much I love you and how much you have brought to our family. You have the most wonderful, whole face smile that brings joy to anyone who sees it. We all love watching (and listening to) you playing with your toys, attempting to move, and jumping around(sometimes I think it is like you have four parents looking out for you). I am enjoying every minute of watching you grow up: I just wish you weren't in such a hurry to do it. Here are a few of the things you have been doing lately:
- You have mastered rolling over from back to front and are managing to creep a bit. You haven't figured out how to consistently roll from front to back but that may be partly because when you fuss a bit on your tummy either Hunter or Julia will roll you back to your back.
- Raspberries! You've been blowing them for a few weeks now. You are really vocalizing these days (even making maaah noises now). We all love this and you have been making us laugh with your funny little noises.
- You have moved on from hand and tongue discovery to foot discovery. Those feet are pretty excellent toys (almost as good as your firefly and your crinkly monster).
- You are getting really strong - not only are you lifting up your head when on your tummy, you are also putting weight on your legs. You really want to walk but you have your whole life for that so just relax Marls!
- You have really been trying to give up daytime sleep and while it makes it a bit more difficult to get things done, the upside is you have been sleeping through the night for quite awhile now.
- You are working on teeth! They aren't in yet but I can see your canines. Apparently uncle Jeff got those ones first so maybe that will be the case with you.
- You have been letting Mummy leave you for a few hours a week at the gym daycare and have been doing great there. We are still doing mum and baby yoga, swimming and boot camp and so far you are always a perfect angel at these classes.

At your check-up in late December you were 13 lbs 8 ounces and 24.5 inches long. Yes, you are growing like a weed! My sweet Marley Moo I love you forever, I like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you will be.

Love Mum

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Joys

- Drawing and colouring with Julia. "I want to be an artist when I grow up."

- Listening to Marley's babbles (I should record them - such wonderful sounds).

- Jason reading the bedtime story.

- Hunter being beyond ecstatic about getting the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Joys of Parenting

Often our lives are so busy we don't take a moment to reflect on the wonder of what is, instead we are looking forward and looking back. One of the best things about children is that they are most often (if not always) fully and completely in the now. Sometimes this is great, watching them experience pure joy (playing, learning something new, etc.), sometimes not so much - when something terrible/painful happens it's hard for them to see that it is temporary or that it will get better as they fully experience all the pain too. Anyway, this is a bit of a long introduction to a few bullet points of today's joys:

- Me: I'm stuffed. Julia: with fluff? This is typical but I love it when at any meal Julia responds this way to "I'm stuffed." We can't even fool her with "I'm stoofed" because she just responds with "With floof?". Love, love, love.

- Blazing a new trail through the snow on the way home from school, especially Hunter running to Julia so that she can join he and his friend on their walk home at lunch (even if it means Marley and I are on our own). Even better, the three of them quickly deciding to join up with us.

- Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle - the sound of Marley figuring out that if she taps the toy it makes a crinkle sound. Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle.

Being a Mum is a gift.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Dear Marley

Dear Marley:

You just turned 11 weeks old on Wednesday and I am already asking myself where the time has gone. It feels like just yesterday that I was feeling you kick, wondering who you would be and now I can't imagine our family without you. You are the sweetest, most content baby and I can't begin to tell you how much I love you and how lucky we are to have you in our lives.

We have a nice routine, you and I, each day we walk Hunter and Julia to school then go for a nice walk around the path. We come home and play for a couple of hours (this is your awake time but play is probably a bit of a stretch) then head back to pick up Julia for lunch. You are sleeping most afternoons which works out well as Julia and I have various things we do - gymnastics, swimming, and Julia's favourite - baking. When Hunter comes home it is you he is most excited to see, asking each day if he can hold you (whether you are sleeping or not). You are infatuated with him too - he was the first one to get you to show us your amazing smile that not only lights up your whole face but a room as well. Evenings are usually a blur once Dad gets home - supper, running around for activities and whatnot but Dad and I are sure to find some time for just the three of us when the big kids go to bed. You have added so much to our lives in such a short time Marley Moo and we are so thankful for you.

These first few weeks you have mostly been sleeping and eating but here are some of your firsts:
- you smiled for the first time a few days before your first month birthday
- you rolled over for the first time shortly after but you have not really figured out how to get past that one arm yet
- you went swimming for the first time in a pool and then in our hot tub (which you smartly prefer)
- You went on your first hike in the mountains (sure you were carried but you did it just the same)
- you had your first cold and stayed amazingly content and sweet despite barely being able to breathe for over a week.

My peaceful, content, wonderful Marley I love you more than you can imagine.

Mum

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Blogging>Tweeting

A while ago I signed up for a twitter account mostly so I could follow other people. Now that I'm on maternity leave, I thought I would give twitter a try. What I've learned is that it's really not for me. I need more than 140 characters because I tend to be long-winded and I want a record for my kids. So, back to blogging it is. I've grossly failed at writing or updating on the kids in the past years but I'm going to jump right back on with a bit about Marley...