We're moved!

I'm so happy it's over!!! Everything went pretty well. We had some sleet and rain yesterday but it was off and on so it didn't cause too much trouble. It was a very long day - John's parents and his Uncle Van and Aunt Bonnie came to help and we weren't done until 10pm. But who cares - it's over!! The house is everything we hoped it would be and more. As I mentioned before, we spent a long time picking upgrades that would be hard to do later. They all turned out so well and everything is so nice. We got all the appliances delivered yesterday and Cogeco came to install the cable and internet. We are going to have to wait until at least next Friday for a phone but I am supposedly on their priority list (I told them I was home alone ALL day with two babies and that got their sympathy). We are far from unpacked but we are quite happy to take our time. The mud outside is pretty ridiculous right now so I'm not going anywhere with the stroller anytime soon. The babies are enjoying all the space. We actually slept at the house on Wednesday night with John's parents. The girls had a rough night but last night they slept 12 hours straight. They are back on 2 naps these past few days but they are still sleeping a bit later in the morning. Jackson is loving the stairs and all the windows. I am loving the cool air at night, the bathtub, the potlights, a big washer and dryer and most of all the feeling of pulling into a driveway and being home. I despised that elevator the last few months we were in the condo. I've got some pictures but I'll post them tomorrow. It's time for bed.

Packing up the computer

John wants to take apart the computer desk tonight so we're going to pack up the computer. We're supposed to get our internet in the house on Thursday so hopefully we'll be back soon. I'm sitting here at the desk thinking of all the times I sat here while I was pregnant and home with the girls. This website has pretty much been my contact with the outside world and it keeps me sane. Have a good week!

I asked Jeff and Alicia to send me some pictures. Here they are!

Jeff, Alicia and Amelia

Amelia

Packing, Visiting Amelia, Packing

Five years of moving every 4 months while we were at University has put me off packing forever. I could go on and on about how much I hate packing. It feels like we packed all weekend - oh wait we did! Our bedroom, the girls room, my half of the bathroom and the kitchen are done. The only things that are left is the computer, our cutlery drawer (we got the paper plates and plastic cups), and all the other stuff we still need. We did take an hour today to go visit Amelia, Alicia and Jeff. They got discharged from the hospital yesterday and their first night at home went very well. Amelia is a very peaceful little baby. She is very cute and was very good at being passed around. I did bring the camera and I did take some good pictures but John has packed away the cord for the camera (and I also hate unpacking!). I will not forget to post a picture of her. This morning John was packing while I was feeding the girls their lunch when he commented on how much more fun they are now. They are starting to get alot more interactive. At lunch they were copying each other...Emma would blow a raspberry...Leah would blow a raspberry...then they would both giggle. It was pretty funny. They are also both really good about entertaining themselves. The follow each other around and get into all sorts of things (like bubblewrap) but they aren't whining for attention all day long. We have changed up their schedule a bit in the last few days. I've been noticing more and more that they don't seem to need their afternoon nap anymore. If I lay them in their crib they'll have a nap but they don't seem to need it. Two nights in a row last week, Leah woke up in the middle of the night and acted like it was time to get up. We had a very hard time getting her back to bed so the next day I didn't put her down for her nap. She slept right through that night but Emma woke up. Starting that day neither one of them got a nap. Since then they have both slept through the night without a peep AND they are getting up at 9am rather than 7am!!! I am really, really hoping this isn't just a phase! So that's all the news. We have a busy week ahead of us. Tomorrow we have to meet with the lawyer to get the closing documents signed for the house and the condo. We also have our pre delivery house inspection in the afternoon and I have bookclub tomorrow night. Wednesday we close the house, Thursday we move and Friday we close the condo. It's hard to believe that this time next week I just might be enjoying my new bathtub!

Welcome Amelia Helen Reitsma

Alicia called me yesterday morning to let us know that Amelia was born just before 9pm on Wednesday night. She was 9lbs 10ozs and she is doing well. I'm just amazed at that weight - the girls combined were 9lbs 9ozs! We might go over to the hospital today and if we do I'll take some pictures.

Rainy day

Mattamy has great customer service. They called me twice today and thankfully the second time they had our postal code. I guess the person who assigns postal codes was on holidays and then sick and nobody at the town of Oakvile thought that there might be some work piling up. So tomorrow I will call everyone and change our address. It rained here all day. The first rain we've had since April 7th so I'm not complaining. I took the opportunity to pack. I got quite a bit done while the girls were napping and almost nothing done while they were awake! Speaking of napping they are doing very well lately. They are napping together and I can usually rely on at least 1.5 hours in the morning and an hour or so depending on what we're up to in the afternoon. I think when they drop a nap it will be the afternoon one. They are also doing much better with sippy cups. I got different ones to try them out and they are much better. For those that are curious we had the Avent ones (that go with the bottles) but all they did was chew them. We got the Gerber ones which are a hard plastic and they drink rather than chew. Tonight at dinner we gave them some toast, chicken and cheese. Emma tried it all but wasn't crazy about it. Leah tried the chicken and spit it out. They are SLOWLY getting better at consistency and I have to keep reminding myself that they are not quite 9 months adjusted. Alicia emailed me this morning at 5am telling me that she was in the beginning stages of labour. I haven't heard anything else but I'm sure everything is going well, just slowly. Hopefully I'll have an update tomorrow.

Welcome to our new home!

So I have moved our little blog here for a bit. I haven't decided if we'll keep it here but it's free, I can post unlimited pictures and it should always be available. I'm not sold on the blogging date format, the template selection and the no albums (for wedding pics) but for now it will do. You might notice that I started bringing all the old site over. It is a very, very time consuming process (with the pictures) but I will eventually get it all restored. Some things I do like are the archives, the links and the comments (they were terrible on the other site) - so make sure you leave some!

No postal code = no house insurance = no mortgage = ??????

So back when we had our little session with Mattamy they gave us our new address but no postal code. Apparently it hadn't been decided yet by the town of Oakville and we were told to check back with Canada Post. Well I have been checking every couple of days and still no postal code. I have been able to set up phone, cable, hydro and gas without it (I promised to call them back with it asap). The final step in getting our mortgage is getting house insurance set up. Did you know you can't get insurance without a postal code? Yep, non negotiable. No postal code - no insurance. No insurance - no mortgage. No mortgage - well hopefully it won't come to that. I spent two hours on the phone today trying to get it sorted out...and we still don't have a postal code. Canada Post is blaming the town of Oakville. The builder is blaming Canada Post. The customer service rep from the builder and the Insurance company rep have never heard of this happening before. When I asked what would happen if come next week (we close on Wednesday) we still didn't have a postal code, I got a very unencouraging "um...I'm not sure". Apparently I am not the first to complain but unfortunately we are the first people moving in so it affects us the most. I have faith that we will get a postal code but what a fiasco. I can't call anyone to change our address because an address without a postal code isn't an address to most places that want to mail you bills. On a positive note this clears up some time so I can pack! The weather was fantastic here today. We had a little taste of summer with the temp in the high 20s. The girls and I walked over to the mall and then when John got home we all went for another walk. Emma started waving yesterday and it's pretty cute. She only seems to like to do it consistently to strangers. She sits in the stroller waving her arm at people. I thought maybe she was getting more used to things but then twice I took them over to the pet store and she started to scream because she was scared of the dogs...

Our weekend

We bought some boxes and bubblewrap on Friday night - and it is still sitting in the hall. I did pack up most of the girls' room on Friday so we have done some packing. We did so much decluttering when we sold the condo and we use pretty much everything that is left. I had this great plan of buying paper plates and glasses but then how long can it really take to pack up the kitchen when I have boxes and bubblewrap! We can pack next weekend! Yesterday we went over to the mall for a bit then headed over to Troy, Jessica and Sarah's for a BBQ. Oh boy I can't wait to own a BBQ. I don't care if I have to stand in muck and cook (well I'm sure it will be John and not me...) before the grass comes in. A lot of people have been asking us about grass. The builder says that those who move in before May (us!!) will have grass within 4 months. It totally depends on your row of houses as to when it actually happens - just because we're the first ones in doesn't mean we'll be the first to get grass. I'll still complain here though if that happens! Today we had a busy day. The girls went to their first birthday party. I can't believe Tyler is one already. Anne and I were pregnant together at work and she delivered Tyler the day after my last day of work. In fact, now that I think about it, it was one year ago at this exact time that John and I were driving to North York for my second steroid shot (for baby a and baby b's lungs) because Dr. Shuen was very concerned I might go early (I was only 26 weeks). It was the start of being treated like a glass doll. Back to the party...Tyler is a very cute little boy - he was very gentle with the girls. It's funny how babies this age play beside each other but not with each other. He is also walking which is pretty neat. We had to leave the party early because I finally got an appointment to get the carseats checked. I tried to set it up nearly 2 months ago. They had 6 people working on the van. John had installed them fine - but they still took it all apart and did them up again. I am very appreciative that these free services exist but their attitude cannot be taken seriously. About 3/4 of the way into the inspection we were asked if we were aware that our seats had been purchased in the United States. I knew where this was going but I just said yes. We were then told that they might not meet the Canadian standards in a voice that didn't even try to disguise the fact that they were of the opinion that we were VERY bad parents. I just said good to know and tried my best not to look at John because I was going to laugh. At the end of the inspection one of the volunteers in training asked in a very serious voice to speak to the both of us again. We were given a lecture about projectiles. He made a good point about the stroller not being secured in the back of the van being a hazard. I had to look away for the next point....did you know that a box of Kleenex could potentially kill you!! I'm sorry but it still makes me laugh when I think about it. We're going to have to get a bungee cord to secure that box of Kleenex!

I found the charger.The weather had been beautiful and we have been out for a few hours every afternoon. I am really going to miss how close we are to everything in the condo and I guess I'm on my farewell tour! The girls are doing really well. They have started to do stuff when we ask them. Emma will blow raspberries on command (complete with drool!) and Leah started clapping yesterday. They are both so cute sometimes - we're so lucky to have the both of them. Some of you may remember when I lost my license in 2002 because of a mix up with my opthamologist that took 3 months to correct. Last week, I finally went to change my name on my license (part of the farewell tour) only to be told that my license expired in July of 2003. WHAT???? I asked all the obvious questions but I guess what can you expect. These are the same people who took 3 years to suspend my license after getting questionable test results. Because it expired over a year ago, I had to take a vision test. I'm very wary of eye doctors now - in fact the plan had been to never go back so this whole situation seemed like a very cruel joke. After stressing and stressing, I just booked an appointment with an optometrist across the street. The optometrist I met was fantastic. He listened to me and the first thing he did was make me read the chart. A few lines in he told me to stop worrying...I had just read what was required to legally drive. In the end he gave me a prescription for reading/watching tv but no glasses for driving. I was so relieved. I know I can see but history has proven that most eye doctors don't believe me! So now that that is over with I am back to focusing on moving. I got some bubblewrap today and wrapped up some of our pictures. We are going to buy boxes this weekend and then things will move quickly. It's very hard to pack with the girls. They are so nosy and they just want to play with whatever I'm doing. Here are some pictures. I've also included one of my cousins kids - Kieran and Sandra's daughter Aby, Catherine and Adrian's son Terry.

Laying around

Emma pulling up

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Help!

Leah the cat

Leah and Emma - 10 months

Aby - 4 months (I think she looks a bit like Leah)

Terry - 11 months and walking!

Still no charger.

I haven't had time to look for the charger so I'll tell you right off there are no pictures today. Sorry. I promise they're still very cute! Another weekend has zoomed by. Friday night I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30pm. I was really bad at going to bed early last week and the girls were up every day by 7am so I needed sleep. Yesterday morning, my friend Susan came over to bring me the book for our next book club. It's April 25th and I was thinking I was going to have time to read it but we'll see. We are very busy lately and I have to start packing soon. Yesterday afternoon we went out to the house. It is very close to being done. The front door and the garage door were locked but we managed to get in the patio door. The carpet is down, the toilets and sinks are in, the lights are up and all the handles are on the doors. We seemed to have upgraded fixtures everywhere (YIPEEE!!) and we're hoping they don't figure it out. The fixtures are pretty nice (all silver) and even the light fixtures are ones we might have picked out ourselves. After the house we drove out to Guelph to see Coby, Carrie and Ronan. They seem to be adjusting quite well besides the obvious exhaustion. The little guy is eating every 2 hours - poor Carrie. They cooked up some steak and chicken on the BBQ and we had just enough time at the dinner table to comment on how well we were doing before Emma started to cry because she's constipated and Ronan started shrieking for a diaper change! Oh how times have changed. The girls are doing well. I haven't talked about poop in months but the last few days the girls have both been a bit constipated. Yesterday Emma tensed up her body and screamed when she had to poop. I gave them both brown sugar and water and this morning they had prunes for breakfast. Things seem to be moving a little better. They are both doing well. The weather was beautiful and today and we were able to take them out without any jackets. It was so much easier. They have both started to "dance" when they hear music and it is very cute. Their current favourite is Heavy D - Now that we've found love! I've also noticed that the infant Baby Einstein has lost it's effect so today I pulled out the next age group one called Neighbourhood Animals. They really liked it which is great because I might need some help keeping them confined and happy while I pack. John is finished in Markham which is great. He's back to taking the GO train which is so much better than driving across the city in rush hour. We're both so busy lately and the closing date has snuck up on us. I still can't believe that in 3 weeks we won't be in the condo anymore. We have so much to do before then but I promise I won't forget to hunt down that charger and take some pictures!

10 month update

The girls are 10 months old today. It was a miserable rainy day so I didn't get the camera out until the end of the day only to discover the charger has gone missing. I will post pictures as soon as I find it. Here's the update: Teeth: Emma still only has 6 teeth but they are very noticeable now. She has bitten me a few times now but she doesn't realize she's doing it. Leah got another tooth on the bottom. They've both been a bit fussy with teething this month. It's easy to tell when they're teething because they get really bad diaper rash. Hair: They both seem to be getting some more hair. Emma's hair is very fair and Leah's is light brown. It still looking like it's going to be curly.... Sleep: We had some rough nights this month. Luckily they take turns so it is not too bad. Overall I would say this month Leah has been a better sleeper than Emma. Their bedtime was 7pm but with the clocks changing we are trying to keep it closer to 8pm. We'll see how long that lasts. They get up around 7am. They are doing very well lately at napping together which makes up for the bad nights. Getting around: They have both mastered the commando crawl. They get up on their hands and knees when they want something but they don't crawl properly. I'm not sure that they ever will. Emma can go from a sitting position into the crawling position (what her exercises were for) and she has just figured out how to sit up by herself. She can also pull herself up if you give her your hands. She is very strong. Leah is sitting by herself no problem but she would still rather be crawling around. Leah is also starting to support her weight when you stand her up - before she would just let her legs dangle. They are both obsessed with the door stoppers (they have broken two) and Jackson's food. Food: We have moved down to three bottles a day and three meals. We are making slow progress with chunkier food. They'll eat it but somedays it can be a fight. My mom sent us some Gerber Puffs (they don't sell them in Canada) and Emma really likes them. Leah will eat them every once in awhile. They started on yogurt and they really like it. I'm not as diligent with the sippy cups as I should be but they are getting better. They get water in them so that might be part of the problem but I am not giving them juice. Talking: They are still not saying any specific words but their vocabulary is expanding. They are currently in the mummummum phase. It's funny how they get stuck on a sound until they work it out and then it gets filed away when they move on. We still hear all the old ba da ma favourites but for the most part it's mum. They are expressing themselves a lot more and they are very rarely quiet. They have even started babbling to each other more. Emma shakes her head when she sees the chunky food coming but I'm trying to ignore it! Leah seems to be over her screaming phase for the most part. Oh boy was that good news. Personalities: Leah is still miss social. When we are out and about she smiles at all her admirers. They even get the occasional laugh. She is very curious and likes to gently examine new things. She is a pretty happy little girl and she loves to talk and laugh to anyone who will listen. Although you wouldn't know it to look at her, Leah loves her food. She is a very good eater - so good that she rarely makes a mess. Emma continues to be more reserved but she is getting better. While she doesn't give out smiles for free she is getting better at not crying when she meets new people. She is still content to play by herself but if she gets hungry or tired she'll let you know in a hurry. When we're at home and everything is good in her little world she is a very happy girl. She loves to laugh and squeal when she's excited. She is very determined in everything she does and she is not at all gentle. Emma loves her bottles but can be a challenge to feed sometimes. It's very rare for Emma to finish a meal without having some food in her ears. The girls are really starting to interact with each other. I'll leave them in their room playing and soon enough a baby will pop out looking for me. It's never very long before I get a second baby squealing with excitement because she's found her long lost mom! They follow each other around and try and play with the same toys. They are very good about sharing - they just pull the toys back and forth and there are no tears. Wouldn't it be nice if they always played nicely- yeah right! They still like their Baby Einstein although I don't seem to need it as much anymore because they love just crawling around the condo and exploring. There are a few things that will stop them in their tracks - the final Jeopardy music, the Walmart commercial with the music that sounds like Baby Einstein and the latest Zellers commercial come to mind. As they get more mobile and interested in what we are doing the condo is starting to feel very small. It will be nice to move and have the space. For now we are planning on putting both cribs in the same room but I think we'll end up with the playpen in one of the spare rooms for those nights when one of them won't settle. All those ideas about letting them cry it out and settle themselves get tossed out the window in a hurry when there's the possiblity of having two screaming babies.

I'm so happy it's Friday. I've had a few gentle reminders that my site hasn't been updated so this was my big plan for the evening. Oh how our Friday nights have changed. We had a very nice week. The weather was really nice for most of the week and we got out. All the snow has melted now so the stroller isn't full of mud when we get home. I'm surprised I haven't got any warnings about leaving the stroller in the hall to dry. I can't wait to have a garage! John and I took the girls out for a walk in the Baby Bjorns on Tuesday night. We face them outwards now and they really like it. Both of them laughed and talked the whole way. The girls are doing well. Leah has started to say MumMumMum. They don't associate words with anything yet but both of them continue to expand their vocabulary. They are both up and rocking all the time but I don't know if they'll actually crawl properly. They are both very quick at the commando crawl now. Jackson's bowl has been moved to the counter and I keep the doors to the bathroom and our room shut. I can't believe our closing date is 26 days away. We went to see the house on Monday and they are almost done bricking. We were inside last week and they installed the wrong kitchen cabinets. They are the right style but they have a high gloss finish which is pretty terrible. We called Mattamy and they were very helpful. The kitchen contractor is going to make sure the right ones are in. When we move we are going to have to change our internet service provider because Rogers doesn't have service in Oakville. This means that I will have to move this site again. I haven't decided what I am going to do yet but if you are interested in where I move it send me an email and I will make sure I let you know. I hope to have this sorted out by the end of the month but just in case I get caught up in moving I don't want to cut any of you off! I have set up a new email address (johnandjen@rogers.com will also be gone). If you want to send us an email use holmesfamily@gmail.com. Tomorrow we are going over to Jeff and Alicia's. It could very well be the last time we see them before peanut Reitsma is born. We don't have much else planned for the weekend. Here are some recent pictures....

Playing in the playpen Leah John thinks this picture is funny! We're sooooo good looking! John's idea of packing for Easter Little Ronan Isn't he cute!