August Update

(Picture: Gwendolyn)August has been a very busy month for us. The Civic Long weekend brought lots of visitors - Brenda from work visited on Sunday up from London (London, Ontario). Was able to get caught up on work news (too my surprise, apparently the Bank can survive without me!). Brenda and Karen were very helpful in relieving me of my daughters - even offering to help with the feeding. Beware if you visit and offer to help that I will take you up on that offer :) (Picture: Brenda and Karen with Rowan and Gwendolyn)

Julie and family visited from Ottawa - it was incredibly hot. Walked over to High Park where the fire department had brought in one of their pump trucks and were spraying water for the children to run through. It looked very tempting to join in. Julie brought us a swing - which is a magical device - put crying baby in swing and in less than a minute baby is distracted by moving mobile - 5min later - baby is asleep. It's fantastic - especially during the week when I'm home alone with two babies crying. I can even time it so one is asleep in the swing while I'm feeding the other. Once finished, I turn of the swing and let the other baby wake up and then feed her. It's certainly changed my day.

The following weekend we ventured out on our first road trip to Ottawa with the girls. It's a five hour drive and we tried to schedule it so we left immediately after their morning feed so we only had to stop once on the way up - but like all great plans, I forgot to take into account the amount of time at Budget arranging for the rental and summer Friday traffic. At the first rest stop - there were so many people we ended up feeding the girls in the car. We also brought with us far to much stuff for the girls. But now I know that we can pack lighter next time. Mum and Dad had setup a nursery in one our old bedrooms - converting the top of a filing cabinet into a change table and happy campers/playpens for the girls to sleep in. We were worried that the girls wouldn't sleep very well - given the road trip and the strange sleeping area - but they went down at the usual time and slept the whole night waking up at 6am (and kept their schedule the entire weekend).
Saturday morning, Ed and Grandpa watched the girls while Mum and I did a bit of shopping. In the afternoon, the girls attended their first birthday party as my Godson was turning 3years old. The house and backyard was full of kids running around with water guns. They had set up a slip'n slide in the backyard and series of other games for the kids. The girls were dressed up in their party dresses looking very cute - and once again as soon as we entered the house we had to give up the girls.

Below is a picture of the Rowan on the quilt that their Gran completed for their arrival. For the past couple of weeks - the girls have become much more alert and aware of each other. I've gotten into the habit of putting them on the activity mat after their 10am feeding to play (while I check my email) before giving them tummy time (or as Ed calls it torture time). The girls are getting very good at pushing their heads of the floor for a few seconds before it falls back down. Rowan has found a short cut - where she rest on her hands - so I have to keep moving her hands out of the way to encourage her to lift up her head much to her displeasure.

Sunday, Nan arrived to meet the girls .Nan is a long time close family friend who is now officially family as we've asked her to be Great Gran Nan to the girls. Ed and I enjoyed playing the proud parents introducing the girls to family and friends in Ottawa. (Picture: Nan with Rowan)


Ed and I are starting to incorporate some of our old past time hobbies that we have recently been to busy to enjoy. Ed has started running again - he isn't planning on being in any races this summer. I take the girls for a walk while he runs and we meet at the bridge by the lake and walk back together. I've also started reading books again - which may not sound like a big deal but two months ago I couldn't imagine having that kind of spare time.