Nora: 2.5 years & Lily: 4.5 months

And just like that... Nora is now 2.5 years old!

It's hard to keep track of the new things she's been doing and what she's been upto, life has just been whizzing by with so many fun and interesting memories. Every day there's always something I'm amazed by or just purely entertained by her humour, mannerisms, character and conversations. She's really not a baby anymore :)

We live in such a high tech world, that unfortunately, there is no trying to ignore the tv, ipods and computers these days. So, we're embracing it. It is crazy how much she has picked up and learnt from the games and applications. Soon, she'll have to teach me how to do things :)

(Nora twirling her finger to get the wizard to come from Bo on the Go)

Every morning, Trav helps me get Nora ready for the day, and part of her 'routine' is that she needs to be potty'd, dressed and breakfast eaten before she can watch her favourite show on CBC, 'Bo on the Go'. I know, we're using TV to get her to do stuff... but you know what, it works and the show is really quite cute... makes Nora get off the couch and participate in the activities (twirling fingers, running, moving, jumping, etc). Sometimes we do it with her... makes me think that I should probably find an exercise or yoga video that her and I should do together :).

With the ipod, Nora's really enjoying the puzzles (Tozzle), pictures and games on the ipod. There's one game, Jirbo Match, which is basically a matching game that she can clear! She even has a process in how she opens each card up, keeping a mental track of the pictures. It's pretty good how she can clear the game in a fairly decent amount of time. I'm too scared to try it out... what if she can beat me!

I'm not sure where 2.5 years old fit into this but I am amazed at her hand eye coordination when using the mouse on the computer! The computers at the library have various games which I used to help play for her, until recently, she told me that she could do it by herself. Well, I was shocked when she showed me how she could use the mouse to click on an item and drag it over to the appropriate place! She takes the opportunity to go to the library anytime someone will take her, so I think my dad has been teaching her how to physically do it all. So cool! So now, we let her play some of the games found on Sesame Street online where she can colour, sort stuff or just play whatever needs drag and dropping.

All in all, I am trying to make sure I don't use all the 'screen' time activities all day and that we still go out and run around, or do crafts or play together.. but they sure are helpful when I need time to make meals or attend to Lily :)

Another major development this past month is that Nora has been asking a lot more questions about things... what is that? who is that? what do you think? and now, the ultimate... why? why? why? So it begins, our quest to make sure we have a reasonable answer back for her... and to make sure we're consistent with the answers because sometimes, the questions get repeated over and over :)

And now Lily... she's almost five months old!

What a social baby! Lily loves to follow you to see what you're upto, waiting for you to look at her so she can smile with her big beautiful bluey eyes! She doesn't mind people picking her up and will smile back at you if you smile or make funny faces at her, quite different from Nora who was always more 'serious' ;)

Yesterday was the first day she rolled over onto her tummy! It's the cutest thing watching the look on her face when she's done a roll and has a whole new view of the world. She absolutely loves watching and listening to Nora (who gives her so much attention and care).

Unfortunately, her sleep has gone downhill since my last update. She is definitely showing or telling me how much she loves me during the night when I have to wake up and get her, almost every 1-2 hours these past couple of weeks :(. It's been brutal and really trying... sleep deprivation is terrible, makes you really moody and emotional and I feel bad during the day sometimes when I've lost patience with the kids... so, in order to gain my sanity back... it looks like we'll have to sleep train. As much as I really hate to see Lily cry so hard, it's really better if we can all sleep better! So, I am hoping that by the next time we do an update, we'll have more positive news on her sleep.

And that's that... now I really should be in bed getting some sleep before my next lily-call but sometimes you just want that personal time to blog and here it is... now I'm off to sleep! :)