Steppin' Out

Spring fever has hit so we've been out and about here this week:

- The boys have been spending longer and longer stretches outside, which burns off some energy. I'm looking forward to getting back into the Bark Busters training with them once the snow is gone. They were so good last summer, but we've really fallen off the training plan over the winter, and like you would expect, their behaviour has gotten pretty bad again.

- Declan and I have had a day at the mall, the grocery store, and today we went to the chiropractor and Starbucks. Pretty wild stuff, I know. Declan is not quite the shopper his sister was at this age, on account of him needing to nurse a lot more often. I have a feeling I'm going to be a very regular visitor at the Family Room at the mall over the next few months.

- Talia has been spending her final days at Jojo's house. She goes 2 days next week, and then Jojo quits daycare and goes back to work at the school. I'm very sad, as Joanne was an excellent daycare provider, but it's the right move for her, so I'm glad about that. We have another home daycare lined up, so after a couple of weeks of a break, Talia will start going to the new daycare two days a week. We went back and forth about whether or not to send Talia to daycare while I was off on mat leave, we decided to keep her in half-time for a couple of reasons:

• it would be good for her to stay in her regular routine


• she loves Jojo and the other kids


• it's good for her to play with the other kids


• they spend a lot of time playing outside, which will be hard for me to manage until Declan gets on somewhat of a schedule and it warms up quite a bit


• it gives me a few days to get out and about to run errands a little easier - Talia is still a baby in many ways, it's hard to manage both of them sometimes. With Declan in the bucket carseat and Talia not able to walk very far yet, they take up my entire cart, leaving me no room for the groceries.


• it gives me a few days to catch up on sleep, etc. if we have some bad nights (which we haven't yet, but I know we will)


• we had to pay for her spot anyway, in order to keep it until next Feb. when I go back to work

So far, it has worked out really well. I hope her new daycare is just as good as Jojo's place. Finding daycare is so stressfull!!

Here are some pics from the last few days. Declan fits into newborn jeans now, woo-hoo! And the shoes he's wearing are the exact same ones (boy version, but same size) his sister wore in her 6 month pictures, which I actually had taken when she was about 7.5 months old. (No, he doesn't have huge feet, they are newborn shoes - Tally's feet are just freakishly small.)