More Reading

Here is a video of Ella and Juliette reading on the white chair. Maybe Juliette got tired of Ella grabbing the books from her and so she decided to dive off the chair. Nobody was injured during the making of this video.

Reading Time

Ella loves to "read" books. Juliette loves to do whatever Ella is doing. Lately the girls have been spending lots of time reading together. They love to share the white chair and flip through their books. It is so cute to watch.

As of a few weeks ago, Ella no longer takes a nap. When she was taking a nap in the afternoon she would really struggle to go to sleep at night, it seemed like she just wasn't tired. Then she stopped napping during nap time. She would sit awake in her crib and sing songs or would ask for a book to look through. We decided to try 'quiet time' instead of nap time. To our surprise, it has worked out really well. The rules are that she needs to stay in her room, and she is not allowed to break anything. I go in and check on her after about an hour and she usually has a stack of books on the floor and tells me she would like "a little more quiet time please". Some things we have learned the hard way (such as not leaving the container of wipes in there), but for the most part quiet time has been a great thing for Ella. Also, she is tired at night and goes right to sleep and often sleeps in a little more in the morning!

Laps

Here is a video of Hudson and Ella doing laps around the ottoman. Hudson, Ella, and Juliette will often do laps for long periods of time... once I timed them and they did this for 20 minutes. They find this activity very entertaining. Every now and then one of them will switch directions and then find it hilarious when they almost run into somebody.

Changing Diapers

Ella's baby has been keeping her busy. She is constantly having to go upstairs and get her a clean diaper. The baby often "does a pee, a huge poop, and has a red bum".

Reading to Juliette

Here is a cute video of Ella "reading" to Juliette.

Grandma Jo-Ann

Grandma Jo-Ann came to visit us this weekend. She spent some great time with the girls and they were disappointed not to see her when they woke up this morning (her flight left early). Ella said "where did Grandpa Jo-Ann go?" and Juju said "amma, amma?"

We went to White Spot with Grandma and had lots of fun colouring and eating eggs!

Dress-Up

Dressing up continues to be a favourite activity around our house. Here is Juliette as 'Cinderella' and Ella as 'Snow White'.

Ella likes to dress herself in the morning and I've discovered that it is best to let her pick her clothes (as long as the outfit is reasonable for what we are doing that day). I was very impressed with her choice the other day (jeans, a pink shirt, and a brown sweater), the most normal outfit she has picked out in a long time. When we got downstairs she immediately added a hat and gold shoes to her ensemble.

One of Ella's favourite activities is putting letter magnets on the fridge. She can now identify the letters A and E. When she sees an E she'll ask 'is this "E"... is "E" for "Ella"?" We are only working on uppercase right now, lowercase is just too confusing... especially because the letter 'a' can look quite different depending on the font.

Funny Glasses

Juliette in her stylish shades.

The other day Hudson brought over some funny glasses. He doesn't like wearing them, but Ella and Juju thought they were funny to try on... just not for too long.

For Grandpa Clark...

Grandpa Clark and Ella like to play the piano together. He is teaching her how to sing a Ray Charles song. When Ella got home, she pulled out her little piano and sang the words her grandpa taught her.

Weekend in Kelowna

We spent this last weekend in Kelowna visiting Grandpa. The girls had a great time running around his house. Ella has always been a big fan of Grandpa, but this trip Juju showed that she is a big Grandpa fan as well. She would wake up in the morning saying "Gampa, Gampa". We also visited Megan and Jeff and their 3 month old son, baby Kai. We forgot to take pictures of our visit, so you'll just have to trust us when we say that he is so cute!

A day with Oren

We had a special guest at our house on Thursday, Oren Cool. He is the son of our friends Brian and Jess. Oren usually spends the day with another family on Thursdays, but their little girl was sick. He is very good natured and thought that our girls were quite funny.

God, Jesus, and Bananas

Ella really makes us laugh these days. Last week Ella and I were eating a banana and I was telling her that bananas are healthy for her heart. We have also been talking about letting Jesus into your heart. The other night I asked her 'who are you going to let into your heart?' Her answer was "God, and Jesus... and bananas".

Trick or Treating

The girls had lots of fun trick or treating last Monday. Juliette loved walking around in her chicken costume and Ella enjoyed knocking on the doors. She didn't quite have the timing down so she would knock on the door and yell 'trick or treat' before anybody actually came to the door. They also didn't understand when somebody would say 'pick two candies' and instead she would try to grab a whole handful. They were both very polite saying 'thank you' after they got their candy. The next morning when we woke up, Ella looked outside and said 'where are all the kids in costumes?'

Here are the girls eating the fruit snacks they received from one of our neighbours.

That's a lot of candy for 2 little girls! The next morning Ella also asked 'where's my candy, did Dadda eat it?' I guess she's onto us.