My girls nap each day from 12:00pm to 2:00-2:30pm. Well, right when I tell Natasha that 12 o’clock is approaching and it’s time to go “bye-bye” (sleep), she immediately goes and finds her beloved Thomas the Tank Engine, aka “choo-choo”. She has a few of those trains but her favourite is one of the larger ones. She then places “choo-choo” on the sofa and looks for a blanket to cover it. Sometimes she uses a small doll-blanket, and other times one of her own bigger ones; it doesn’t matter, it just matters that “choo-choo” is “warm, like Tasha.” After “choo-choo” is all settled on the sofa, she makes sure to lean and stroke the train with her hand several times. She tells the “choo-choo” that it’s time to go “bye-bye” and then she gives it a big kiss. She then strokes it some more and gives it a few more kisses. Only after that does she run and jump in her own bed. :)

In light of some spring-reorganizing (and I’ve been doing a lot of that!), I decided to pull out Natasha’s little bookshelf from her bedroom closet and make it more accessible to her. We’ve put it in her closet probably over a year ago, as she didn’t show much interest in reading until very recently; that way I could avoid her making a huge mess each time. But now we pulled it out and set it next to her picnic-table so she can sit down and ‘read’ or look at pictures whenever she wants to. She loves it. On top of it is the girls’ new portable CD player; their old (10 year old one!) broke down recently so we got them a brand new one. Now the trick is to train Veronika to stop pulling everything out!

So if you feel like buying Natasha a present any time soon – a new book is a great idea!

Today (out of nothing better to do) we took the girls out to dinner at Montana’s. It’s been a very long time since we took them to a sit-down restaurant so we weren’t sure how they’ll behave, being as you have to wait for the food to arrive. But surprisingly, they were both amazing and on their best behaviour. Veronika sat in her highchair the entire time and did not whine even once to get out; Natasha stayed in her chair or just walked around the table, looking at the moose on the wall. The most surprising part was when Veronika ate a bunch of my starter Caesar salad… the child who always refuses her veggies and salads at home ate a whole bunch of leafy salad. Go figure.

I ordered the girls a plate of penne pasta with tomato sauce, thinking I’ll take a few pieces from Natasha’s plate for Veronika. But whaddaya know, Veronika ended up eating 75% of the pasta, while Natasha was being miss-picky and eating the toast that came with it. Veronika also ate an entire serving of mandarin oranges before her sister realized they were even there. What can I say, the child LOVES to eat… haha. I guess we’ll be taking them out to eat more often now since they are both at an age where they can actually enjoy it. When it was time to leave, the waitress gave the girls suckers (lollipops) and even though I am 100% opposed to kids eating those things, I gave in and let Veronika have a taste… BIG MISTAKE. She threw a fit and had to be distracted to forget about it. Natasha, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with those.

Yesterday Veronika started walking… and to me, as exciting as it is, it also signifies the end of her being a baby :( It’s almost as if the last milestone that we await a baby to accomplish and once they master it, the baby-stage is kind of over :( Of course, she is still my “wittle-baby” but at the same time, she’s now a toddler. *sigh*

Here’s a short video of her walking. Today she also learned to stand up from a sitting position without holding unto anything… she’s jumping from one thing to the next waaaay too fast for me. She’s such a big girl now!

Last Saturday I took Natasha to Chapters in the hopes of buying her a few new books. She’s finally starting to really enjoy books (beyond playing with them), and I wanted to expand her little collection since most of the books she has are either too baby-ish or too “wordy” for her. We bought her 5 new books – 2 story books, 1 counting picture book, 1 rhymes book, and 1 activity book. Her favourite is by far the My Giant Sticker Activity Book – it has over 600 stickers inside (what toddler doesn’t love stickers?) and specific places to stick them; the book goes through colors, shapes, signs, numbers, letters, animals, trucks, etc. Natasha was just fascinated and spent a whole hour today finding the correct stickers, naming the object/letter, and placing them in the correct spots. The book is for ages 3+ so some of the activities (such as addition) she couldn’t do, but there is still plenty that she could.

Her loot-

And while I was busy picking out her books, she discovered Indigo’s Thomas the Tank Engine train table. She was in HEAVEN!

This morning I took Veronika for her 12-month check-up. According to her Pediatrician, she's doing GREAT! She got weighed & measured and she's 21 pounds (9.51kg) and 31.9 inches (81cm). She’s tall like her sister. She also got her MMR (Measles/Mumps/Rubella) and Meningitis vaccines and only cried for a minute or two. Her doctor told us that she can eat anything now and to just continue doing everything as we are.

Happy birthday to our beautiful little girl!
It’s hard to believe that you’re already one.
We love you!

Then & Now…
 

-from mama, papa, and big sister Natasha.