A lot of this and a lot of that....

It really is amazing how TRUE the saying "time flies when you're having fun" is. Prior to my earlier post today it had been June 11 since my last post (I know I know I've been saying I'm going to be a better blogger in many of my previous posts - but this time I mean it). 

A lot has happend in our house over the past two months so much so I don't know where to begin! The kids are now 19.5 months old and full of tons of energy and lots of new words, my belly continues to expand as I enter the last nine weeks of my pregnancy, we recently enjoyed a lovely two week vacation at Sandy Lake and Lake Muskoka the last week of July and first week of August and we are starting to turn our thoughts to preparing our house for "Little B's" arrival in October. 

CHARLOTTE AND JACOB 18 / 19 MONTH UPDATE

A little soccer at NTCI (Aunt Jal would be proud)

Loving their breakfast

• Words: Jacob loves to imitate what we say. It's a bit like having a parrot in the house. We now have to be extra careful of the words we use because of this! While we were driving in Peterborough the last week of July Doyle made a comment about being able to go faster in the car if "this dodjo" wasn't in the way on his bike. All of a sudden from the back seat we heard Jacob say "dodjo"! Needless to say that word was repeated quite a few times over the course of our vacation ;) Other frequently used words include: 
• "B" for "Little B" (Jacob)
• Peas for please (Jacob and Charlotte)
• Hat (Jacob and Charlotte)
• Shoe (Jacob)
• Ad Thai for Pad Thai (Jacob)
• Baby (Jacob)
• Sweep (Jacob)
• Bubble (Jacob)
• Beep beep (Jacob)
• Hot (Charlotte and Jacob)
• Wee (Charlotte)
• No (Charlotte and Jacob)
• Ball (Jacob)
• Cat (Charlotte)
• Kick (Charlotte and Jacob)
• Opo for open (Jacob)
• Mil for milk (Jacob)
• Cup (Jacob)
• Boo for blueberry (Jacob)
• Mo (Charlotte and Jacob)
• Me (Jacob)
• Walk...run...walk...climb: The kids love being on their feet. No more crawling in this house. They go from walking to running to climbing to walking in a matter of minutes. 
• Continue to have a vast understanding of what we say: Although they might not always communicate by words when we ask them to do something they clearly understand what we're telling them. It's amazing to watch the progress they've made over the past 19.5 months. I'm still in awe of all they have learned and are able to do while still seeming so small!
• More teeth: Both kids are progressing well with their teeth. Charlotte has her first molars and is starting to sprout her eye teeth. Jacob's molars are starting to cut through but haven't made their full appearance just yet. His eye teeth are still hiding! 
• Continue their love of solid food: We introduced them to vanilla ice cream while we were at the cottage and boy did they love it! I've never seen something disappear so quickly from their bowls as I did when we put the ice cream in front of them. Other favs include watermelon, sausage, BBQ sauce, pad thai, cheerios and milk, and turkey and ham slices - in addition to all the other solid food we've introduced
• Barney: Both kids enjoy watching Barney on Treehouse. They will actually sit there for over 10 minutes fixated on the screen - they especially like the singing parts! 
• Activities outside the house: Summer program in the park (aka camp) on Tuesday's and Thursday's, walks in the neighbourhood with Claire, play dates with Wes, Jayden and Ethan, fun in the splash pad, turtle pool and Michael and Jessica's pool

Jacob and Charlotte love their watermelon

Charlotte: "Don't worry Grammy I'll mow your lawn for you" 

One reason to never leave Charlotte and Jacob unattended ;)

A boy and his sand box and fire truck...pure bliss! 

Mmmmm corn on the cob

Olympic diaper boxing - it's a new event

Splash pad fun....brrr it's cold

"LITTLE B"

We are eagerly awaiting "Little B's" arrival. I still can't believe we're at 30 weeks already. I'm down to my last eight weeks of work which is also incredibly hard to believe. Although "Little B" continues to progress as he/she should be for this stage of pregnancy we did learn during our 21 week ultrasound that he/she has club feet (which means its feet will be turned in when its born) and they will need to be treated after Little B arrives. We have met with the pediatric team at Sunnybrook and have a prenatal consultation at the club foot clinic at Sick Kids next week to learn more about the clinic and how they will work with us after the baby is born. It's amazing that these things can be detected via ultrasound and helpful because it has enabled us to better educate ourselves about what lies ahead. We feel very fortunate about the care and support available to us and we look forward to sharing our journey with you. 

SUM...SUM...SUMMERTIME

We spent a great two weeks away from the city at dad and Sandy's cottage on Sandy Lake in Buckhorn and the Huyer's cottage on Lake Muskoka in Torrence the last week of July and first week of August. We started our adventure in Buckorn and the kids loved hanging with Grandpa and Gramz, playing in the lake, sand box, swinging in the hammock, visiting the public beach, seeing the animals at the Peterborough zoo and walking along the road in front of the cottage. On August 3 we left Buckhorn and headed to Torrence for the 5 annual Muskoka Rocks 10k weekend at the Huyers. Once again it was a weekend filled with great friends, good food and many laughs. We packed up on August 7 and headed back to Buckhorn for the remainder of our holiday - which was unfortunately cut short by a power outage on Thursday August 9 which forced us to head back to the city to finish the last three days of our vacation at home. We'd like to thank dad and Sandy and the Huyers for letting us enjoy their cottages for our vacation. 

Hanging with Grandpa on the deck at Sandy Lake

View from the cottage

Another view from the cottage

Charlotte loving her new rooster friend 

Loving the Peterborough zoo / donkey

Jacob's new fav thing....watering the flowers

Hammock time at the Huyers

Hey Taryn...how do you like my I mean your hat?!

LET THE NESTING BEGIN
The past few days I've found myself thinking about all the stuff we need to do before "Little B" arrives - starting with organizing the middle room (which is currently our office) and getting it ready to be turned into a bedroom. We have found a crib (thanks to our friends Neil and Geraldine) that matches the bookshelf and club chair which are staying in the room and have all the clothes (boys and girls) neatly folded in large plastic boxes waiting to be placed in a dresser (once we find one). Other than organizing / setting up the room we don't have too much else to do - thanks to the fact that we have strollers, toys etc from Charlotte and Jacob. Let the organizing begin!

So...as you can see we have been busy since my last post. I look forward to sharing our news more frequently from here on in. Too much happens to let two months past without an update! Plus I keep getting gentle reminders from certain people (names to be withheld) about the fact that the blog hasn't been updated in a while :0.....this post is for you and everyone else who has missed "the Brown Family Buzz"!