Family Photos

After the birth of each of our daughters, we had family photos taken at a professional photo studio. For the first two girls, we headed to a studio when they were around 3 weeks old. With our latest addition, we waited a little longer. 

A few weeks ago, I spotted an ad for a photo studio in a neighbour's home, and we decided to give it a try. So it was that last week, we (all 5 of us) headed to our neighbour's house. The photographer lives just a few doors down, so we didn't even need to take our shoes!

How could anything go wrong with our plan? The morning of the session, our infant scratched her face for the first time, leaving an impressive scratch to the left side of her face. Our oldest fell down at the park the same morning, resulting in a large abrasion over her right knee. Then just hours before the session, our eldest decided to scratch #2's face! 

The two older girls really enjoyed the photo session, and even our infant, who usually cries for a few hours every evening, behaved herself!

Here are a few of my favourite photos:

Apple-Picking: a family event

Last Sunday we left the littlest one with Auntie and Grandma, and went apple-picking. My husband's work had organized an apple-picking event for employees and their families. One of his colleague's parents own an apple orchard. 

So it was that we had the whole orchard almost to ourselves! 

In photos:

Path to the orchard

Looking for the perfect apple

She found it!

Apple-picking!

Playing in apple crates

Tractor ride

Enjoying  a heathy lunch

Already One Month Old!

How time flies!
Already 1 month old!
Cries a lot, mostly in the evening
Wants to be held all the time
Nurses non-stop
Has gained over 1kg in the last month
Enjoys walks in her stroller
Loves car rides (or at least her parents do as she sleeps throughout)
Has started losing her hair
Has developed neonatal acne
And a "cradle cap" over her entire scalp
It's a good thing her parents still love her!!!

Baby #2 holding Baby #3

How we got our Toddler to Give up her Pacifier

I was not very proud of the fact that until recently, our 31/2 year old toddler still regularly used a pacifier. She was clearly addicted. She would wake up in the middle of the night because her pacifier had fallen out. She would suck on it between meals, and in fact was without her pacifier only when we removed it from her as punishment. We let her suck her pacifier mostly because the alternative was listening to her whining and begging for a pacifier...

Then an idea occurred to me. My husband and I had been talking about getting the girls bunk beds for some time. We had been eyeing a model from Ikea. It is a very low-lying bunk bed, so low that the lower mattress rests directly on the floor (so our 11/2 year old would not get injured falling off), and the upper bunk is not too high either.  We recently received an Ikea catalogue in the mail, and I showed our toddler the photo of the beds. I asked her if she wanted one. She replied "Yes!, I will sleep on top, and my sister can sleep on the bottom." I replied that it was a good idea, but that once we got the bunk bed, she would not be allowed a pacifier "because girls and boys that are old enough for a bunk bed are too old for a pacifier."  She thought it over, and decided that she still wanted a bunk bed...

And so it was that last week-end, I picked one up from our local Ikea, and my husband and I (but mostly my husband) put it together. Not only do both girls love their bunk beds, but our toddler has now gone almost a week without a pacifier. In fact, their first night in their bunk beds was the first night ever that they both slept through the night!

Final score: Parents 2-Kids 0!

Before: 2 side-by-side beds

After: space-saving bunk beds

Enjoying their bunks!