Mother's Day (x3)

10 Months

Not sure how it happened so fast, but Matthew and Renee are 10 months!

Dear Renee (or Reneenena as I call you),

You love to crawl, always on the move exploring your surroundings. You are little Miss Independent, you can entertain yourself by yourself for long periods of time. I feel quite guilty sometimes because I think I spend more time with your bothers, but I think they need the interaction with me and you genuinely seem to be happy on your own. We did have a mommy daughter day this month though when we went to Sick Kids to test your bladder and kidneys. You hated the tests because you had to lie still, and you sensed that you were in a different place as soon as we walked into the hospital - you hung on to me, you fingers clenching my clothes. You got a clean bill of health, and after lunch with Daddy we got to spend the afternoon together - what a treat! You love watching little girls, boys don't seem to interest you as much, but if there's a 6 or 10 year old girl around you can't keep your eyes off her. You're close to your first word and you imitate language and song. The other day you babbled the tune to happy birthday (one of Samuel's current favourites). You've also said "MMMMM, MMMMMmaaaaaaa" deliberately both towards Matthew and me. And when Samuel said something about yellow you responses "elo".


Dear Matthew (aka Matthew Matthew Man, sung to the tune of Macho Man),

You did not have a good 10th month which dealt you a series illnesses. You started with an ear infection in your right ear that ruptured your ear drum, then strep, then an ear infection in your left ear, and then salmonella. During these 10 days you also got three new teeth. You were a real trooper though, a bit fussy for a few days, but for the most part we hardly noticed you were sick (except for the green puss leaking out of your ear and the diarrhea) . Now that you are better you are back to your happy self. You're not crawling yet, but you do move around, usually backwards and sometimes end up wedged under a couch or bed.


Watching your interactions is fascinating - Renee, when Matthew was sick and fussier than usual you would try to calm him down by talking to him and stroking him. Unfourtunately, your touch often had the opposite effect.


Now, a bit about your older brother. Here he is on Yom Haatzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) and at "his museum" (the Royal Ontario Museum) exploring for dinosaur bones.