Matthew came home yesterday with his completed journal from school. Inside was one story he had written. It was cute so I thought I'd share it. One day there was a little girl named Emily. Emily likes to suck on fingers and have tummy time with her big brother and Daddy. She is the best baby. The end.
Here is Emily in her highchair, one of her favorite spots when she is not moving about on the floor. Her one tooth is visible now, and the front bottom tooth next to it has broken through as well. This comes just as Matthew's other front bottom tooth is loose. He is wiggling it often, excitedly anticipating another visit from the Tooth Fairy soon. 
We stayed in town for the long weekend, and got out as much as possible when it wasn't raining or snowing. Bruce and the boys went over to Heritage Park on their opening day. We all went to Calaway Park on Sunday. You can see the boys on a couple of the rides. Matthew is at a neat age where he enjoys these rides, as well as the bigger rides. He is tall enough to go on virtually all the rides by himself now. He went on the surf rider by himself, and he and Bruce braved the log ride and big rollercoaster. Andrew's favorite is the Supertrucks. 
We sometimes go to Chuck E. Cheese's in Edmonton when visiting as a special treat, but were not telling the kids that there was one opening in Calgary as we knew they'd want to go more often. Well that did not last too long as lucky Matthew was invited to a birthday party for a classmate there. Since it is a ways from our house we all stayed for the party. Andrew liked trying some of the rides and games, getting his photo taken with Chuck E., and eating pizza & birthday cake. Every once and a while they'd turn on some disco lights and Emily couldn't get enough of these. She'd be in her stroller with her neck craned to the side to check them out. Matthew is all about playing games with the best odds of winning the most tickets so he can cash them in for coveted prizes at the end. He accumulated so many tokens to play games and was playing so seriously that we ended up being the last ones to leave the party! 
Emily's first tooth just popped through on her bottom gum this past week. There is not too much to see yet. I might not have even noticed, but she had grabbed my hand to take a munch and I could feel it. She is just starting to sit on her own, though of course she needs someone there to spot her. She is showing more interest in some bigger kid toys and likes to get into the trains, cars and trucks. Emily continues to be a good eater pretty much eating whatever we do chopped into small pieces. We do not get another official height and weight measurement until she is 9 months old, but often people are commenting how "healthy" she looks!
Here is Thomas the Tank Engine visiting Heritage Park on the weekend. We had fun riding on the coaches being pulled by Thomas and taking in all the other "Thomas" activities and entertainment. Luckily it was one of our first really nice days so the outdoor activities were very pleasant.
Emily seemed to enjoy her first train ride, and one with Thomas the Tank Engine no less. She turned 7 months old yesterday.
Matthew enjoyed taking turns pushing Emily around the park. Other favorite activites of the kids were watching the model trains, coloring, listening to music, going on the rides, taking a turn on a bouncer slide, eating cinnamon buns from the bakery and getting Thomas tattoos. Though Matthew enjoyed the day, and proudly wore his tattoo, he was keen to have it washed off that night as he thought it might not be seen as too cool by his school pals. I guess he is really growing up! Further evidence of this was losing his first baby tooth this weekend. He was thrilled that the Tooth Fairy found her way to our house, and his tooth, to leave him some coins in exchange.
I am always trying to get the boys in our beautiful large backyard, but they always want to hang out on the driveway! This is where the hockey, chalkdrawing, visiting with the neighbors, and of course bike riding happens. You can see Matthew with his shiny new bike with gears and full suspension. He is waiting for daddy to put a water bottle holder on it for those longer bike rides on the paths. Andrew likes scooting along on his trike, but can also pedal "just like Matthew" for quite a distance now. 
You can see Emily in her pretty shirt blowing raspberries. The boys say that Emily is "spitting", but I try to rephrase this before they both try to imitate her!
