Happy Holidays!

Sisterly Love...

It's growing...

 Amidst the squabbling over toys

 Slowly...but surely

It's growing...more and more everyday.

Family First: Bowling

Last week we were invited to a bowling party hosted by Sylvie's daycare provider. Since Sylvie and Mary have never been bowling before we thought it would be a great way to spend the Sunday afternoon.

I wasn't sure how the girls would do, and I was convinced that they would drop the ball on their toes. Thankfully no toes were hurt in the event. Since the bowlers were all five and under, the bumpers were put up along the lanes to ensure success. There were these cool little stands for the kids to use where they put the ball at the top, give it a push, and watch it roll down the slide and toward the pins.

At first Sylvie was a little sad to see her ball roll down towards the pins...(and Daddy was hoping for a strike, or is he just practicing his Zoolander look?).

 But she soon warmed up to the idea of knocking the pins down.

 After watching her big sister, Mary was in there like a dirty shirt. In the beginning all she really wanted to do was pick up the balls, but Daddy convinced her it was fun to push them down the ball slide as well.

 Watching the ball zoom towards the pins...

 And success - a strike! Ok, not really - but fun was had by all.

It was a great afternoon. Thanks again to Yvonne for pulling off a wonderful Christmas party for all the little kids. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Our daughter is Two!!!!

This week Mary turned two, and we celebrated together as a family of four. Mary and I went out to the cupcake store and selected some treats for dessert in lieu of cake. Daddy and Sylvie brought home pizza and our birthday supper essentials were complete.

 Enjoying her sister's birthday dinner.

The birthday girl getting ready to blow out her candles...

Enjoying the first bites of her birthday cupcake

 Sylvie enjoyed her cupcake too, and wondered when it would be her birthday.

 

We are so thankful that we were able to celebrate Mary's birthday with her here at home together as a family! She is a beautiful, cuddly and affectionate little girl. Her giggles and chuckles crack us up every time, we hope we can continue to make her smile and laugh every day.    

Second Week Home: Doctors Appointments and Refereeing

So the past week we have been busy with getting into a routine and various doctor's appointments. We have been to see two plastic surgeons and met Mary's pediatrician. The next couple of weeks will continue to be busy as we try to get through all the requisition forms from the doctors. So far we need to go and get some routine blood work completed, check her immunization records with the public health nurse, have a set of x-rays of her legs, and get her hearing assessed. We are going to try to space out all these appointments over the next couple of weeks so Mary isn't overwhelmed.

The two plastic surgeons will work together to repair Mary's lip. We are now waiting for the surgeons to meet now come up with a game plan. Our surgeon today did say that he expects that we will have a surgery date sometime in January.

This week also coincided with Cory heading back to work (boo!). It has been wonderful having him home the first week back from China. When we came home last time with Sylvie, he had to head back to work two days after we got back. Thankfully we are mostly over the jet lag and are finally starting to get some good sleep at night.

So with Cory at work during the day, I have added a new task to my job description of motherhood - Referee. Yes, life with two toddlers is definitely interesting. Add one "only" child, and a second toddler with very limited English skills and you get some exciting times around here in the Drinkwater house. I'm still trying to figure out how to best handle their squabbles (and quell the occasionally biting), any suggestions are appreciated.

However, there are periods of time during the day where they do play very nicely together. Sylvie is so excited to have someone to play with at home. She is forever hiding and calling out "Baby Mary come and find Sylvie" (yes, she still talks in the third person). Mary is also very taken with her Jie Jie, she intently watches her play with every toy and copies her exact moves. We're trying to encourage Sylvie to make really positive choices since she has a little shadow, and feel lucky that Sylvie is generally pretty good most of the time.

Here's some pictures taken the other night of the girl's playing in a box - I love how toddlers can turn everyday objects into the most entertaining toys!