Playing Outside

I shot this video earlier today when we were playing outside. At the beginning, December is talking about "bugs" (ants) having crawled into her ears (she's got a good imagination -- they supposedly crawl into her ears every time we go outside), and then she launches into the ABCs, which changes into the "Bugs No Eat You" song (which is an original composition by December).

Potty Training and Make-up

December loves to put make-up on -- whenever she sees me doing it, she begs to do it, too. So this morning, I let her have some! She's pretty happy about it, as you can see!

Here's some of her handiwork with the blush. It looks pretty pale in this picture, but in reality, she looked like a crazy pink clown...

Can't forget the bright pink nose!

Here she is, all finished!

December is fascinated with the ants (or "bugs" as she refers to them) outside. She loves/hates/is frightened by them all at the same time. If you watch the video, you can see how she thinks they crawl in her ears all of the time.

Hanging out by the tree

A live-action shot of December running

We are full-swing into potty training! I started a little bit before we left to come here, but it got put off as we transitioned into living here, and now we're back into it full force! It's alot more frustrating than I had thought it would be. Sometimes I'm so proud of her when she tells me she has to go potty and actually does! She CAN do it -- I've seen her do it. But other times, even though I ask her every three minutes if she has to go potty, she'll just wet through four big-girl underpants in a row! Or like today at lunch, when she spilled her milk and had a splash party in it while my back was turned -- and while I was cleaning up the mess on the floor, she peed, soaking her entire high chair and adding a puddle of an entirely different kind on the floor to clean up! Not fun. I really have no idea how long potty training takes, but I'm hoping that she'll be mostly finished by the time we leave Calgary in a month and a half. Is that too much to expect? I really don't know...

December's 1st Haircut!

One of December's last pictures with all of her baby hair!

Here's the length of December's hair right before I gave it a trim last night!

I decided to cut December's hair in the bathtub, because that's how my friend Naomi cuts little Noah's hair and it seems to work out well for them! It did work out great. December just played with toys while I trimmed away.

Our little Statue of Liberty. She's all finished her haircut and is holding up the comb I was using. She looks pretty excited about it!

While I was holding the scissors, working on the back of her head, December would turn around and say, "Mommy? You cutting my hair??" I hadn't even told her what I was doing, so she put that all together by herself. I love how December is learning more and more words and putting together longer sentences.

This is about how much I cut off her hair. It'll be her little lock of hair that goes in the baby book. Putting hair in a baby book still kind of weirds me out, but when she grows up I want to show her that she had blonde hair when she was little! (Since I'm almost completely certain her hair is going to darken at some point.)

Here's the "after" shot! Her hair is now about shoulder-length...and nearly all of it is the same length, which is something she's never had before! Just her bangs are a different length now, which we're growing out.

Swimming Pool

A few days ago, it was nice and warm here, so December got to go swimming! She loves playing in the water.

Filling up the swimming pool...

And then December made Grammie do about five hundred trips in and out of the house to get warm water! "Too cold, too cold!" she'd say. Grammie sure must love December to lug all of that water out of the house!

Finally it was the right temperature for December to get in.

She looks a little lonely in there, doesn't she?! She apparently thought the same thing too, so I changed into my bathing suit and "swam" with her.

Calgary Stampede

We went to the Calgary Stampede about a week ago. We had a blast! We rode the C-train (the transit train) in, and December absolutely loved that. The first thing we did when we arrived on the Stampede grounds was go to see the Superdogs -- a show where the dogs run, jump, do tricks, race against each other, etc. Here's December with Daddy, absolutely enthralled.

After that, we went to the Kids' Midway and got some ride tickets. We let December choose which rides she wanted to go on! Her first choice (which she was quite adament about) was this little train ride that just went around in a circle.

She was thrilled about this little train!

December and Brad were at the front of the line, so they got to get into the first car, a pink one, which suited December just fine! Pink is her current favorite color.

Next December chose to go on the swings. She liked this at first, but then started crying as the swing rose higher and higher.

Then she chose to go on the "a-go-ga-ter ride"(alligator ride), which is basically the teacups. Again, she was happy at first, but then I started to hear screams whirl past me from a certain alligator that held Brad and December. But each time she got off a ride, she was excited and chose a different one to try!

The last ride was the carousel. She liked this one so much she went on it twice! First with Brad...

...and then with me.

After the rides tuckered us out, we went and saw a Clydesdale horse show. December LOVED this! They hooked up 8 Clydesdales to a wagon and then made them thunder around the arena.

After that was the magician show -- which was possibly December's favorite event. Brad had really wanted to see a magician, and I was certain December would be bored, but she was COMPLETELY into it!

She sat just like this and stared. She'd get highly concerned when the "mommy" went into the box and disappeared. "Where'd the mommy go?" she'd ask. December was very relieved when the mommy appeared again. She was also concerned when the magician hooked himself into handcuffs and couldn't get out ("He stuck! Oh no! He need help!" she said.)

The last thing we did before we came home was look at some of the farm animals. December liked this, too, but we pushed her stroller right up to a sheep kennel, and the sheep shouted "BAAAA!" right in front of her face and scared the daylights out of her. So then she cried.

The Stampede was great fun, though! We all had a good time, and I was sad to leave. There's so much to do there, and there was something for each one of us!

Ultrasound of the New Baby

If you click on these pictures, they get nice and big -- and clearer!

Today was the ultrasound for the new baby...here are some pictures! It was pretty incredible. This picture doesn't show it, but the baby DOES have legs, too!

The baby had hiccups during the sonogram, which was pretty cute to watch. He/she was moving ALL over the place, the ultrasound tech said. We're having another active baby like December! I had guessed as much, though, because of all of the many squirms and kicks I feel.

Here's the little tiny face. The baby is only about 6 inches long right now. We could have found out the gender today, but we decided not to! I asked the tech if she knew what the gender was, and she said, "Oh, yes. I know exactly what you're having." She's the only privileged one to know -- the rest of us won't find out for four and a half more months!

Here's the baby waving hello.

I love this picture -- you can see the hand SO clearly! And you can see his/her head on the right side of the picture, and the curled-up legs on the left side of the picture.

This ultrasound put the baby at 20 weeks today -- but according to my due date (Dec. 1), the baby would be turning 20 weeks on Monday. So that means the baby measured to be a bit older than what we had thought. The ultrasound guessed his/her due date to be November 27 (which is Thanksgiving Day). But these things aren't always accurate, and for now the due date of December 1 still stands -- but I won't be surprised if the baby tries to come before then!

Yee-Haw!

Vacation Bible School was all of last week at the church. I was the leader for the 1st-2nd grade class, and Brad was in charge of the games station. Here's a picture of the daily opening assembly. All of the kids that you see in the picture were my kids (there were around 20 kids in my class each day).

Here's my class in the music station. We learned lots of fun songs, and December even learned some, too! She was in her own separate class/nursery group. I so enjoyed being the leader for these kids...it was a TON of fun! By the end of the week, my voice was super sore, though!

Here we are again in the story session. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the games station, but Brad did an awesome job at it, and it was by far one of the kids' favorite stations! The whole VBS week was exhausting but super fun!

Every Thursday night, Brad, December, and I go to worship team practice. We led worship for the first time on Sunday, and it went well! December is a trooper at these late practices, and she plays around while we sing. This is a picture of Brad getting the sound system set up for us.



This week is Calgary Stampede (a big, famous rodeo) week, and the church did a Stampede Breakfast on Saturday. Here we are, all dressed up. Brad's job was to hand out pamphlets and get to know the people who came.

December is really getting into this cowgirl thing! She's trying on Grammie's cowboy hat and loving it.

I think she looks pretty cute in a hot pink cowboy hat!

Giggling because Brad is tickling her

For the past months, we've been trying to get December to stay in the church services on Sunday, with varying degrees of successfulness each Sunday. Last Sunday had to be one of her WORST ever, and I was nearly driven to the point of insanity. So right after the service was over, I went right to the church library and took out this book. Hopefully Dr. Dobson can teach me some things!




December seemed interested in this book at first and tried to read it...




But you can see just what she thinks about this book after she looked through it!

Yesterday, Grammie went out and got the two grandkids some Calgary Stampede cowboy boots and hats! They looked adorable in their gear.

Giving each other hugs...I think December may enjoy this activity more than Caden does

Brad arrived home from work, and Caden & December went out to show Brad their new duds

This morning, she wanted her hat and boots put right back on again

Brad is hoping to go into work early tomorrow morning so that we can go to the Stampede in the afternoon. I hope that works out!

I have an ultrasound booked for Thursday afternoon, so I'm pretty excited about that. We could find out at this ultrasound if we're having a boy or a girl, but we're going to keep it a surprise. We think it's more fun that way. They often give you pictures of the ultrasound, so if they give me some, I'll put them up on the blog here so you can see the baby, too!