Christmas Good Times

Let the good times roll! Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you all had as good a time as we did her at the Soloy household.
Rowyn "got it". She got Santa and understood what presents were and thoroughly enjoyed all of the holiday treats that were out on display for the last few weeks. The present opening was fantastic. She got so into it that when we got over to my parents house on boxing day she was an old hat at it. She didn't even wait for an invitation she just waltzed right over to the tree, selected a nice size present and proceeded to open it. Too bad it was a gift for my mom and not for her.
Everyone spoiled Rowyn rotten, Santa, Mummy and Daddy and all the grandparents and aunts and uncles, cousins, friends and Khaos. The girl has more hair things, more cute outfits, more shoes and play toys that I could have ever imagined. She's latched herself onto some of them already. The My Little Pony driving the little scooter with it's own remote controller is a big hit, all of the purses and bracelets and necklaces and hair ties get carted around all over the house, and the LARGE Elmo doll is drooled on and has had his initiation in the stroller already.
I can hear Rowyn right now talking to Khaos "....Auntie and shoes, and tie it up, and I found more money and put it in my bank Mama, and Khaos MY SHOES!!". Oh ya. We got it all these days. So amazing and fun.... and tiring..... Rowyn's slept like a champ these last few days with all of the excitement.
Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure. More Christmas pics when I get the downloads from all the family.


Christmas Eve - putting Cookies and Milk out for Santa

Christmas Morning - Looking at the empty plate.

Family Self Portrait - Christmas morning around our tree

Rowyn and cousin Ty sharing fish at Heather's house

Grandpa Andy and Rowyn - Rowyn helping Grandpa open his gifts

Sibling rivalry

Rowyn was hanging out in the living room yesterday afternoon playing with all her toys while I was getting dinner ready. She was playing with Julianna - her cabbage patch doll and giving her some water from her sippy cup. I can hear her talking and was kind of amazed at the conversation that went on. It went something like this

" Juie-anna, haz sum wadder. Oh-oh dirty face juie-anna. Wipe off. Mama! Kleenex peeze! Juie-anna haz wadder all over".

She came over, got a Kleenex from me and proceeded to wipe off the water on her face, the floor, Julianna's clothes. They the conversation continues.

"Want more wadder Juie-anna? Mmmmmmmmm more. NOOOOOOO!!! AZA (Khaos) MY JUIEANNA!!"

Khaos had wandered in on the cleaning up and wanted to lick up the water. Rowyn proceeded to tell Khaos to go lie down and go away. The two of them were having a little shoving match. A 30 lb kid trying to push an 80 lb dog away. I wonder who was winning?

I guess Rowyn will have to deal with sibling rivalry after all.

These are a few of my favourite things.....

I thought I'd post a quick comment as Rowyn is hangin' out with Daddy "watching dirt bikes". Yes, dirt bikes. She likes to watch Brad play PlayStation and he has a dirt bike game. She requests dirt bikes every night. This is fine when Brad's home, but when he isn't, Rowyn's out of luck. I can't even run the PlayStation never mind figure out how to work the controller.

We're in full Christmas swing here. We've been talking about Santa, but that's as far as we've gotten. Every time we're at the mall I ask Rowyn if she'd like to sit on Santa's knee and the immediate answer is "NoooooOOO!!!". We'll eventually get there I'm sure. We've decorated our tree, we've built a snowman, we've decorated a gingerbread house and managed to eat half of it the same day we decorated it, and we're obsessed with the snow. Every waking moment Rowyn's telling us "Dad, hey Dad! There's snow outside!" It's great but a little wearing on the nerves after the 50th time before 8:30 a.m. Rowyn's singing Jingle Bells. Along with ABC's, Twinkle Twiknle, Frara Jaquea (Not sure how to spell it), You are my Sunshine, and many many other songs. It's great to hear her belt them out. She's even relatively in tune.

Here are some recent pics... Enjoy!

Reading Stories in Bed. Rowyn's favourite book "Elmo's Blanket". We read it EVERY NIGHT. (Not the most flattering pic of me... Brad always seems to get my not so best angle but cute nonetheless)



Our first Snowman! We had fun. Every time we walk out of the house Rowyn screams "Look Mama - a Snowman!". He was created just before dark on a week night so the pics are a little on the dark side.

ZZZZzzz...... R's sleeping...... for now

She's sleeping.....finally.... for now..... in her "hockey bed"......Mummy and Daddy have also been catching up on the 252 hours of missed sleep in the past month.
Rowyn decided that she was a big girl now and leaped out of the crib one night after I put her down. She wasn't happy about going to sleep and I was just about to go back into her room to tell her to settle down when I heard a "thunk". I rushed in and flipped on the light and there was our innocent little lamb.... on the floor... staring up at me with big eyes. I didn't even know what to say. I was so shocked and surprised that I just stood there like a dolt. Needless to say, there were many many many nightime visits that night. I woke up around midnight to find her stsanding beside the bed staring at me... just hanging out looking at me. Weird and a not a little disconcerting! The was the end of the crib and the start of a LONG journey to her hockey bed.
The next day I ran out to the store and bought her new sheets, an Elmo book (Elmo is the fav these days) on "Elmo's countdown to bedtime" and a few other things for a transition to a big girl bed that night. We were optimistic that things would go well after a bit and anticipated a little resistance at first but NOTHING like we encountered.
Long story very short, we tried the "escort her back to bed with no eye contact, no emotion, and quickly" whenever she got out of bed. Theory being that she'd get tired of getting out of bed when there was no interaction from Mum or Dad. Nothing interesting = no getting out of bed.... Boy were the "experts" wrong on this one. We weren't even out of her room before her little pajama clad feed were hitting the floor to come back out. Hours and hours and hours later she'd fall asleep out of exhaustion only to be up 30 - 60 minutes later. I thought we were done with sleep issues after she was 6 months old. Nobody prepared me for this part!
I have to give Brad all the credit in the world for hanging out and dealing with little miss "i can get away with 3 hours of sleep a night" chick for an entire week while I travelled for work. What a trooper (even so, he desereved every bit of that hang over from unwinding that Saturday after I got back). Daddy of the year award goes to Brad.
ANyway, I digress. After a near divorce we FINALLY had a brainstorm. Out of desperation Brad put her crib back up and put her crib mattress on a built up box that was low enough that she couldnt' get out of. We kept the bed but used a consequence theme. We explained that if she got out of bed, she would go in the "little bed" (the crib). Her response "NO LITTLE BED MAMA! HOCKEY BED!!" Needless to say, she spent the first night in her little bed. Since then (about 2 weeks now) we haven't had to put her back into the crib, but we've left it up as the consequence for getting out of bed and remind her every night that she needs to stay in bed. Things are remarkably improving. She's happy with the light on a little bit and the door cracked open a bit. Mornings are early (5:30 a.m. - 6:00 a.m.) but we're not complaining... we're happy to get 7-8 solid hours of sleep. Our girl is MUCH happier too.
We're SO looking forward to Christmas and seeing family and friends! We're off to get our Christmas tree this weekend and decorate. More pics soon!

Hockey bed definition - Bed with guard rails... we had to think of something cool
Little bed definition - crib
Here's her room today. A little crowded, but it's working!!


The snow out our back and front door this morning. So pretty!

1385 Miles......

I'm exactly 1385 miles away right now. Hang'n in my hotel room waiting to meet up with some co workers for some dinner. I'm in Austin for work this week and already missing everyone... well sort of.
We're in the middle of a battle. One that I'm not sure will ever get a white flag. We had to transition to Rowyn to a "big girl bed" last week after she spent a VERY eventful night JUMPING out of her crib. I can't say I'm all that surprised but there was just no warning. I put Rowyn down for the night and she wasn't happy about it. I was just about to open her door to tell her "night night" again and I hear a loud THUMP. I swing open the door and there are two little eyes staring back up at me from the floor. I'm absolutely speachless.... and so is she. All I could get out of my mouth was "Did you.... Oh my..... You.....". Know what she said to me? "Hi Mama". We spent the rest of the night with late night visits. At one point I woke up to heavy breathing in my ear and it was Rowyn standing beside the bed. That pretty much sealed the deal for us to get the bed out and ready the next night.
I went out and bought Princess sheets, an Elmo book that talks about moving to a big bed (Rowyn is in absolute LOVE over Elmo) and a small stuffed Elmo doll thinking I would make things a little exciting and special. Well, I should have just saved my moola. We're in the middle of the battle of the wills. Rowyn is giving a supreme effort to make sure that she tells us she's going to get out of bed whenever she wants. Like a million times a night. We're all feeling a little stressed and anxious of this. Now I'm in Austin for the week and Daddy's on duty. Poor Brad. At least Rowyn reacts better to Brad than me. Nap time took 15 minutes and she was down for 2 hours today. We havne't seen that in 10 days to be exact. I'm crossing my fingers and toes that Brad wins the big girl bed battle this week. She loves her bed and talks about it all the time. We just have to figure out how to entice her to STAY IN BED!
On a more fun note, we had Halloween this year. Rowyn dressed up as a horse - aka Unicorn. Rowyn loves horses so rather than tell a squirming 2 year old that the costume that Mummy wants her to climb into is a weird thing called a Unicorn, I kind of bribed her and said it was a horse and I was going to put some special makeup on her face. Did I mention that Rowyn is a total girl? Necklaces, makeup, hair elastics, belts, purses, you name it. The kid loves it. We had a grand time parading her to houses in our subdivision. She even got the hang of saying "trick or treat" and holding out her bag. We gave her a few treats that night and hid the rest. No need to add to the jumping bean effect of being a 2 year old.
We also visited the apple orchard this fall where Rowyn got to see some miniature horses and pick apples.
We went to a pumpkin patch as well and saw lots of other farm animals.
Our adventures have been getting bigger and bigger and we're loving every minute of it. Rowyn's understanding, remembering, and enjoying everything. I think Brad and I are just as excited as Rowyn to do everything all over again with her.
I don't have many pics with me on my notebook but here's what I have.
More updates more frequently, I promise.

Milestone hit!

We've had such a busy but amazing rest of the summer. I can't believe the leaves are falling and turning all sorts of great colours right now. I'm not ready for winter!
I've been on the hunt for winter gear for Rowyn. Between getting new boots (that had to be exchanged twice to get the right size and style), searching for multiple hats and mits - I'm sure we're going to loose a set or two, and finding a snowsuit that I don't need to take a second mortgage one I'm pooped! Oh - and not pink.....
I think I've found everything, now I just need to get Rowyn to try it on - which at this point is a roadblock. I'll snap a pic if she ever tries it on.
We've passed another milestone in the last month. Rowyn has mastered the potty! When we were at Deer Lake on our vacation we put in some serious time sitting on the bathroom floor with Rowyn trying to get her to "go". It took 3 days, many accidents, and a lot of phrase and jumping up and down but she got it. Since then our little lamb has been in big girl underwear. Yes, we still have the odd accident and we haven't mastered the #2's yet, but hey, we're down to one diaper at night and that's it! We're so proud of her!
I think we're on the verge of another milestone too. I went into Rowyn's room last night to see what the commotion was about and walked in to find Rowyn caught red handed - or should I say red footed with one leg fully swung over the side of the crib. Sigh. I was hoping we could spend some time at Christmas doing the bed transition. Looks like Brad will be moving furniture and setting up a big girl bed in the next week or two. I don't think I'm ready to be woken up in the middle of the night by a poke in the shoulder from Rowyn. This should prove interesting.
Rowyn continues to make us laugh with the things she says. Some of her favourite things to say:
"oster the douch" - translation Oscar the Grouch!
"nooooooo Aza..... my sherios!" - No Khaos, my Cheerios
"No poo poo inda udrware, poo poo onda potty"
"peese mama, more dadda cereal"
It's just so cute! She's absolutely in LUV with horses. The kid won't stop talking about them. And Sesame Street. She's found Elmo and loves him. Rowyn also loves everything girly. Poor Brad's had to wear necklaces, carry Barbie, have Tea, and find Rowyn's purse for her when she's lost it. She always wants to carry my purse, keys, wear my watch, anyone that comes into our house with a necklace on has to relinquish it to Rowyn for the duration of their stay.
I'm sure we're going to have a little beauty queen on our hands any day.

So, we're all happy, healthy (except Brad who's feeling a little under the weather right now) and busy. We're off to Kindergym this weekend (I can't wait!) and we're going to the apple orchard (yummy apple crisp and apple cake coming soon....).

Somehow I broke our keyboard on our home computer so I'm having trouble downloading all our pics, but here is the latest one that I took of Rowyn. More to be posted soon.

Sunshine and vacations

We just finished a weeks holiday up at the cottage. The timing was perfect. It seems that the clouds were all rained out and we had sunshine for the entire week. It's about time! We all trekked up north to visit with Grandma Anita and Grandpa Stan. What a week it was! Thanks Stan and Anita for having us and putting up with us! wink**

Rowyn's quite the little helper these days. We managed to convince her she couldn't lie in all of the sheets and snuggle in so she decided to help Grandma do the laundry. She even helped hang the clothes on the clothes line!



Thank goodness for the wagon. We had so much stuff to bring down to the lake with us - plus Rowyn that it sure came in handy. Brad became the steam engine that chugged and chugged with all his might to get Rowyn to where she needed to be



Nectarines! Yum. Look how cute I am!



Rowyn and Grandpa playing what else? but cars. A girl after her Dad (and Grandpa's) heart.


Take close notice of Rowyn's shirt. It says Deer Lake Cottages.


Brad, Stan, Mark and Josh made the 3 hour off road trek into Round Lake for some amazing fishing



Nice Tilley Soloy!


The gang went to visit Johnson's farm to see some Horses and Cows.... Or as Rowyn puts it HORses and Dows......

Happy Birthday Princess!

Where was I on July 30th, 2008 at 11:02? Oh - I remember. Sitting at my desk at work on a conference call trying not to sniff too loudly as I reminised about Rowyn being born two years ago to the minute. The first year I was in awe of her. This little thing that we made, that we created. Last year I was distracted and having fun visiting Nova Scotia and family - and still on maternity leave. This year..... I'm stuck at work on my girls bday on a conference call. I must say, I was a little more emotional than I thought I'd be. I think I'll take Rowyn's bday off every year from now on and make it a day about her.
How did we celebrate you ask? We had a family get together. I had a great time - and I think everyone else did as well including Rowyn. She spied the presents on the table first thing in the morning and asked "wha dhat?". I told her it was her presents because it was her birthday. She looked back at the presents, then at me and comments "Wha dhat?". She did relish opening the gifts though. She has the hang of ripping open the wrapping paper and chucking it aside or handing it to me "here mama". Thank you to everyone who gave Rowyn a gift this year. I put away some of her baby toys last night to make room for the new toys. She's absolutely in love with the shoes Grandpa Andy gave her (I have had to convince her she DOES NOT need to wear them to bed), she loves the Barba (aka barbie), she loves the fold up camping chair that Auntie gave her (she carries it around with her like a purse - who knew!), and the CD's with the songs that will surely drive Brad crazy within an hour on the drive up north.





Bathroom renovation aside, we're having an amazing summer. So many new things to see and to do. Rowyn's just soaking up the sites and experiences. It's amazing to watch her discover and learn things. She likes to hold the mail key and try to put it into every mailbox slot except ours, she insists on wearing my high heeled shoes around the house (and she gets them on the right foot and wears a matching pair), Rowyn absolutely loves Khaos (aka AZA). She looks for him and asks for him all the time. She's learned that Daddy is at work most mornings when she gets up and is sure to ask "Dadzee work?".
We visited our cousins last weekend and did Thomas the Train. Thomas was a little lost on Rowyn but we had a great time taking a train ride and bouncing in the castle and swimming in Ty's pool. We had a great time at the beach and got caught in a storm. The waves were just like the Dominican. It actually felt like we were somewhere tropical. Was a great relaxing time. Thanks Meg and Kurt!

Hello? Yes, we're still here

I've started to write many times over the last few months. The timing just didn't feel right. Too tired from work, too stressed, too excited about something coming up blah blah blah. So..... i'm taking the time to write now. I realized how much I've missed over the last two - oh I mean 3 months. I don't even know where the month of June went! First it's June 2nd and then June 30th and we're on our way up to Deer Lake for the long weekend. Whew!

One fine spring morning in May we spent a beautiful morning outside playing on the slide.....


Rowyn flying high in the sky... These are the moments that you cherish. All the laughs and smiles


Rowyn's first bowling birthday party! It was such a dark, seedy place we just had to laugh. Glow in the dark bowling was a hit though! Rowyn rolled the ball down the lane but wanted to run after it. After a little coaxing she got it down



After bowling... crash and burn.... i don't know who was more tired. Brad or Rowyn!


Mmmmmmmm lilacs from our backyard which we managed to save during our Fence building expedition.... another story for another time.....



Rowyn's first taste of cool whip....... Strawberries will never be the same!



Rowyn's end of school play. Her class sang three songs. We had such fun watching our little star parade around the stage and "sing" with her friends



Rowyn's second July 1st weekend at Deer Lake.


This year we found fishies, went for a boat ride, played with her friends and visited with Grandma and Grandpa.




Totally, absolutely, 100% in love with this face