Of Christmastime and Thereafter

So, Christmas happened, and New Years and Epiphany... and now here I am, it's January somethingth and I'm officially at home with TWO girls. So far, it's been good. M eats and sleeps and poops and spits up, G eats and sleeps and talks and talks and talks...
Christmas was a great and relaxing time in Ontario, even though we did spend a good part of it sick with the flu (we were asleep before midnight on New Years). I'm really glad that I had time with my parents here and then two weeks with Paul's parents so that the adjustment to a new baby at home alone was after a full month. Having two kids is definitely an adjustment, but it's also so much easier since I feel much more confident this time. I am not stressed out to leave the house without M. In fact, it was fantastic to go to the grocery store by myself yesterday.  It's also great for Paul to get a chance to be at home with the girls by himself, even if it's just an hour.
Not that it's all sunshine and roses. G seems to pick every time I'm feeding M (which, granted, is often) to want to do something that requires my hands. She'll ask for a snack, a story, for me to play with her in exactly the way she wants to be played with and get a bit frustrated when the answer is "in a minute". But, I keep congratulating her when she's patient and playing with her when I can.
Her new toys are great for distraction. She got a very fun new play kitchen for Christmas, and we got her an adorable fake sushi set, so she makes dinner in her little kitchen while I'm making mine.

One of her new toys is a doctor's kit, which she loved - in fact, it was the hit of the family Christmas, most of her cousins also played with it. The best part is that she will take the stethoscope and go around listening to people's hearts, except she heard heartbeats as heartbeeps, so she'll put the stethoscope on your chest (or any other random body part) and loudly say "BEEP!". It's pretty hilarious.

A followup to our new 12-days of Christmas tradition - it went quite well. I divided two boxes worth of Smarties into little origami boxes, which were in her shoe outside her door each morning. I don't think G really got the meaning, she was just excited to eat Smarties before breakfast, but it's the beginning of something she can expect every year. I think in the future, I'll try mix up what they get every day, so it's not just the same thing. I don't want to add too much extra stress to future holidays, so my hope is to keep it pretty simple.

What's on the horizon this month? Buying our very first car, since the bus strike continues (2 months and counting!).

This Has Gotten Out of Hand

G loves stuffed animals. She really, really loves them. In the beginning, there was one favourite- Lambert. He's a lamb, he's small and he was a perfect thing to drag around. Then, Bear (aka Edward Bear, aka Pooh Bear) joined the list of favourites, and she would be satisfied with either of those two at night, or when we went out.

Now, she has no less then ten animals that can be slept with, taken with her when we go places, lined up around the house, fed, diapered and dressed and most especially, demanded at any specific time. I'm a little nervous that she's going to be babysat one of these days and the sitter will have no clue which animal she is wanting to sleep with. Some of the names are obvious - Frog, Puppy, Dinosaur, Monkey - others are a bit more confusing.
"Boston" is a teddy, a very dilapidated and frankly, frightening teddy bear. He was Paul's childhood bear, actually originally belonging to his older brother. He has no eyes or features to speak of, is falling to bits, stuffing coming out everywhere, and is so worn, I can't even sew the holes without some very serious patchwork. I would love to throw him out, but he would be missed.
"Florence The Lamb" is not that confusing, but G tends to blend her name into "YawenceDaYam", which I don't expect anyone but me to understand.
The best of all is Octopus.
This is Octopus:

Yeah, he's a peacock. G knows he is bird, she knows he is a peacock. But his name is Octopus. I'm not even sure she knows what a real octopus looks like.

This stuffed animal thing has gotten out of hand.

But we don't have a baby doll. Or a cat. Or a bunny. And I want all those things for her.
So, perhaps it's me who has gotten out of hand.