G'n'R Out West

This weekend we got to take Adelle to Folk Fest.  I was super fun to have her there.  She got up early on Saturday so we headed down to the park to meet my friends at 8 am.  When the doors opened we set up our tarp at the main stage and then headed off to one of the smaller stages for the the morning.  Adelle had a great time dancing, watching people and hanging out. 

We took a break from the festival mid-day to go to a baby shower to welcome baby Micayla into the world.  Baby Micayla was pretty busy with all the other visitors so Adelle didn’t get much time to visit with her.  However, we did notice that she has some pretty serious looking little cheeks…so her mom is doing a great job feeding her!!  We did get to meet another little girl who is just over a year and can sign a TON of things.  It is really quite cool to watch her. She even signed ‘all done’ when Adelle attacked her with one of her agressive little hugs…poor Adelle.

Kim and Brad (Micayla’s parents) had a very beautifully organized change table complete with a little basket full of nicly arranged diapers.  Our little bean, set to work immediatly to reoganize the diapers for little Micayla.  She had a blast pulling the daipers out and handing htem too me, or carry them out of the room.  She loves to take stuff out of stuff and move stuff around.  She also enjoys putting stuff in stuff…but not usually back into where it came from.  But the diapers were different.  Once she was done with messing up the diapers she VERY carefully put them all back in.  It was a complicated task to complete becuase the diapers were no longer tightly folded.  Adelle went to great lengths to get all those diapers back into their little bin.  She was so very careful and precise.  It was very cute.

It was a great day, but Adelle only napped for a total of 30 mintues.  To us she seemed to be on the verge of a meltdown.  But the meltdown never came.  She had a great time and danced and played well into the night.  She didn’t fall asleep until the final act hit the stage.  I danced and jumped her into a slumber and then she and Greg cuddle while we listened to the final songs.  I struggle with having days like this with her.  It is good for kids to be well rested and hard on them when they are up late.  But I also think there is something to be said for experiencing life….hopefully it was the right choice.

This morning Adelle woke up briefly for a little snack at about 5am…but slept in until almost 9.  So she certainly made up for lost sleep.  She is in a great mood.  I think we made the right choice.  It was so fun having her with us at folk fest it is just the best place for kids.  You can hang out and listen to music while playing in the grass with other kids…how much better can life get?  There are so many activities there for older kids, so I look forward to bringing her to folk fest for years to come.

Breaking out some serious dancing moves

Passed out at the end of the night

Thought some of you might enjoy this video of our beauty’s early days of walking.  By the way…anybody know how to flip videos…i keep taking them sideways and I’m not smart enough to figure out how to fix that.  Anyway, hope nobody gets a kink in their neck watching this little clip.

She is just full of surprises.  Today we were goofing around and she was laughing and I noticed some new white specs in her mouth.  Four new teeth.  Imagine that!!!  She now has her two front bottom teeth and her 4 front top teeth.  Big news.  We’ve had some rough nights, but we were assuming they were heat related…after seeing so many teeth come at once we are now reconsidering that theory.  Poor little teething bean.

Before I get too into this post.  Here is the promised picture of my dad on his last leg of his journey out west.  It was awesome to see him come into town.  We are all so proud of him.  An amazing accomplishment to make it out here from Ottawa in just 6 weeks!  Not many 65 year old would be up for that kind of an adventure.

There are many reasons I am feeling lucky.  The first is that Greg, Adelle and I just got to spend the last few weeks with so much family.  It is so special to have family around when you live so far away.  This past weekend we took a trip into the mountains and rented a cabin there.  We stayed for 2 days with my dad, Greg’s parents and my Aunt.  The second reason I feel really lucky is that there were two major accidents one on our route to the cabin.  The first on the main highway, the second on the detour route.  Both had fatalities.  We are fairly certain the second accident was caused because people were rushing and impatient after having to take the detour route adding hours onto their journey.  We initially hit the stopped traffic (for the second time) and instantly became irritated…until we saw the police cars zoom past, then the ambulances and the fire rescue truck…then saw the cars being turned around to make room for the Air Ambulance that was to land.  Suddenly we felt lucky that our 3 hour drive was going to take 8 hours and nothing more.  We are lucky, so much can change in a moment of impatience.  I know that is a bit of a sad thing to put in my post.  But it really impacted me, and made me think a lot these last few days about what is important.

We had a fabulous weekend in the mountains.  There was lots of hanging out and enjoying the cooler climate (since it has been SO hot in the city).  We took a great hike up into the mountains…we didn’t all make it to the final destination…but my dad and my aunt brought back pictures to share with us all!

In other news, as of today, I think we can say that Adelle is officially a toddler.  She has taken a ton of steps today.  she hasn’t totally given up on crawling but the ratio of walking to crawling certainly went up quickly today.  She will now easily take 5-6 steps at a time without thinking much of it.  It is so amazing.  Tomorrow Iwill try to take a video of our toddler.

Today we said goodbye to the last of our family visitors for the summer….now the house seems empty.

Keep your eye out for my dad who is now on his return trip back to Ontario!

Greg’s parents in the mountains

My dad and Adelle sharing a moment (a moment he worked very hard for…since she is slow to warm up to adults!)

I am officially in shock.  11 months, she is practically a year old.  I find that very hard to beleive. 

This month has been insane, our house was like a bed and breakfast.  So many visitors, so much fun.  Adelle had more attention than she knew what to do with…oh, no, I take that back, it seems she knew EXACTLY what to do with it.  I noticed a huge difference in her this month, and she sure did just lap up all that attention.  

 Sleep:
This month has been a bit hard to say the least.  We’ve had some hot nights, and with no air conditioning sometimes Adelle has just had a hard time staying asleep.  I don’t think we can really think much of her crumby sleep this month.  Between all the visitors and the stifling nights, we are lucky she slept at all!! 

On a good night this month she was going to bed at 9pm and getting up around 7 am, with one night time waking.  I think she would likely have slept longer if it wasn’t for the heat.  Putting her to bed hasn’t exactly been easy, often taking upwards of an hour, but again, with the heat, what can you expect?

Napping is still going well, she naps at least once and for at least an hour, sometimes she naps twice, sometimes she naps for multiple hours (although that is rare!).  At the moment I think we have hte napping thing cased, we just have to watch her to see what she needs each day. 

Eating:
Adelle has really made a switch from baby food to adult food.  She is still getting a few mushy things, but for the most part she has started eating what we eat, or at least eating what we might in theory eat.  She tried spaghetti for the first time this month…and it was a pretty big hit…but messy…oh, so messy. 

One day she was really on us to give her some onion.   So we gave her a tiny piece thinking ‘that’ll teach her’.  We were wrong, we learned the lesson, she loves onions.  Other things we tried on her: lemon and grapefruit.  Come on kid…you have got to be kidding me…I can’t beleive some of the stuff she likes.  Obviously in the food department, she does NOT take after me.

Getting Around:
She can walk.  She will take a few steps, when she isn’t really thinking about it, between people, or to get from one peice of furniture to another.  Although, she will often let go of something, then slowly and quite gracefully lower herself into a seated position for crawling.  She certainly has the ability to walk, it is just a matter of desire now.  Every day she seems to take more and more steps. 

Hair:
She needs another hair cut, her hair grows like a weed! 

Eyes:
Greg is also now convinced that they are not blue/grey, or at least not blue grey all the time.  They seem to change a lot.  I have no clue what colour they are.  Sometimes very grey, sometimes greeny brown.  Bizarre.

Language:
She now consistantly does the milk sign.  Although, she now uses it for everything she wants.  So it can be a bit confusing…especially because it looks so much like a wave…sigh.  Oh well, she still recognizes signs and so that is very helpful.  This past weekend she also consistantly made the sign for dog when we saw the dog at the cabins we were staying at.  Pretty cute.

She still like to imitate the sounds we make.  She often says ‘dada’ to Greg but she also says it when he isn’t around.  Other than ‘hi’ I think that is all the ‘words’ she has. 

Personality:
Squeals for dogs and kids, adults have to work a lot harder to win her over.  With all the visitors we had it seems it often took a few days for them to have clearance to touch Adelle.  Although, she sure did enjoy all the adults helping her walk these last few weeks.  

She now officially waves at people.  But usually she waves after we’ve left the room…takes a few minutes to sink in I guess.   She still likes to point at stuff.  Mostly flags and planes, but she is also really into trees and flowers these days.

Stuff that happened this month:
- she took her first real steps
- all the Grandparents came to visit her
- she had her first camping trip and LOVED it
- she learned to kiss, mostly her kisses are reserved for dogs, stuffed animals, and the babies in the ‘Where is my belly button’ book,  but ocassionally people get them too!
- chomper number two arrived, she now has both her two middle bottom teeth

Yep, that is a lemon

We’ve had a full house this past weekend.  On Saturday night we had, my mother, her husband, her 2 friends, my dad AND my Aunt all stay over.  It was so fun to have such a ridiculously full house.  Living so far from where Greg and I grew up it isn’t often you are surrounded by so many loved ones.  We are so lucky.

There is lots to mention in this post.  Probably most notable is that my dad has completed his bike trip from the east.  He ended here this weekend, will spend the week with us, and then head back home by bike!  Quite the accomplishment I must say!  He has so much energy it is amazing!  I always find it just a little bit unsettling that my 65 year old father is in better shape then me.  Congratulations dad!  We took some pictures…but my dad’s camera is officially dead.  So I’ll have to post one up tomorrow when the battery is charged.

My mother has also just had a visit with us at the tale end of a spectacular trip with her friends to Alaska.  They all had such a fun time.  Such a neat climate up there to explore.  It was fun to hear all about thier trip.  We had lots of fun with her and her friends this weekend.  We had a little hike on Friday and on Saturday we all invaded my cousin’s house and had a HUGE family dinner.

Adelle has done remarkably well with all our visitors over the past week.  Which is good…becuase there are more to come.  Greg’s parents join the party on Tuesday.  Adelle has been pretty shy at first and it seems it takes a good few days to get her to warm up.  To her credit she has had  a lot to put up with lately.  It has been really hot here and she has been sleeping about 4 hours less than normal each day.  She is such a trooper.

On other fronts, Adelle has taken a few more steps these past few days.  She isn’t really walking yet, but she took a number of steps today.  I don’t think she really has the motivation.  She seems more than content to crawl, or drag any number of the adults who have been visiting us around the house so she can walk.  When she walks with somebody assisting her she only wants to hold onto one of your hands.  And she only wants you to hold her right hand.  If you try to hold her left, she will switch your hand over into her right…very interesting.  She continues to use her little walking toys.  However, she is now the boss of them.  She can run over things, she can pick them up in one hand and move them.  She can hold onto a toy and push the walker with just one hand.  I am not really convinced she needs them anymore…but they sure are fun.

We have recently started feeding her what we’ve been eating most nights.  So far so good.  Turns out she LOVES most of the stuff we eat.  It is much messier than the baby food we had been making her but I guess she has to grow up one of these days.

People always ask me if I am nervous leaving Adelle at home with Greg…well here is a picture that ’safety dad’ took while playing with Adelle last week….that is a box of waterproof matches in her hands…nice one Greg.
 

Lunch time pitstop in the mountains, with my mom and some friends.  It is REALLY messy feeding Adelle picnic style.  Sigh…..
 

Adelle loves plants.  In this picture she has pulled a leaf off a tree.  We are trying to teach her ‘gentle’ and usually she is pretty good at it…but ocassionaly she gets caught up in the excitment and pulls a leaf off.  We say ‘gentle’ to her so much, she might actual think that ‘gentle’ means ‘plant’.  She actually imitates us saying gentle.  Similar syllables and intonation in her voice.  Very cute.

Greg had a pretty proudmoment at Paityn’s birthday party last weekend.  Adelle found Paityn’s new tricycle and immediately crawled over to it and stood up.  Greg would be VERY excited to have a biking partner in a few years! 

I assumed she wanted to ride it so put her on.  She let me know she was not interested in riding it (through her main method of communication: screaming). I promptly took her off.  She spent the next 15 minutes or so walking around pushing the bike.  There was a little hill in their backyard too, but nothing can stop our determined little walker.  She had to put her weight into the bike to push it over the grass, but she succeeded.

Here is our little bean, pushing her bike – she was working so hard her tongue was sticking out!

It was short lived…but wonderful.  It is a bit like our old camping trips except you have to tell people to stop eating rocks more, and it is way more screamy during the night!

Despite our best efforts, we are pretty sure Adelle ate a rock, and she definitly ate a lot of dirt.  It is darn hard trying to see her mouth with a sunhat on!  In the end we worked on teaching her to pick up only big rocks, figuring it was an uphill battle and the most important thing was that she didn’t choke.  Funny how you spend so long making this perfectly safe little house for your child to live in and then you take the camping and plop them down in a field full of chocking hazards!

The day was wonderful, perfect weather and Adelle was clearly excited to go camping.  Unfortunatly, the night time didn’t go quite as well.  She was up a bunch and screaming everytime.  The first time she was up we were able to diagnose the problem. I was reminded how different Adelle and I are.  I dressed her nice and warm for bed, then we put her in my down sleeping bag…what could be more cozy I ask?  Well, after about an hour, Adelle was drenched in sweat and MAD.  Oops.

We quickly remedied the sweat issue, however, after that the night was just difficult.   She isn’t a big cryer anymore so usually when she wakes in the night we can easily sooth her.  Not last night.  She was a mess.  Not sure what was wrong, I don’t think it was camping related, becuase she loves being in the tent.  I even caught her in the morning sitting up quietly and just watching the outside pass her by.

In the morning we woke up to rain (and of course I had forgotten her rainsuit)…so we decided to pack it in.  It wasn’t a terrible night, but I just felt so guilty for all the other campers that had to listen to our little girl scream so often and for so long during the night.

Today she was a bit of a wreck.  We went to Paityn’s 2nd birthday party and she had a good time, but just wasn’t really her regular ridiculous self.  She is now in bed, and hopefully she will have a good sleep and feel more well rested.

Big smiles for camping

Taking a break on our hike

This is what happens when you tell your baby they aren’t allowed to eat anymore rocks, oh, and by the way, you have to go back into the backpack!

To give ourselves a break from the constant rock patrol we put adelle on a blanket, it worked for about 5 mintues while she organized some tupperware, and then she crawled on over to the edge of the blanket and found herself some delicious rocks to eat…sigh….sometimes I don’t know why we even bother!!!

No doubt about it she has taken her first steps. 

People have been commenting for the last little while that they thought she was close to walking.  I am never so sure, as it seems I am always wrong in such predictions.  BUT this past week she took a few steps by accident.  Tonight she took a few on purpose.  She still crawls, but there were a few times she thought about it really hard and then decided to walk.

Tonight was also a big night for standing independently and clapping. 

I am so excited for her, it will open up such an exciting new world.  Already this past week she can be found standing by the table jabbing her hand up on the table top looking for anything her little hand can grasp.

So fun.

Happy Canada Day everybody!

We had lots of fun at our company family day, which was held at a horse jumping competition.  Adelle wasn’t too interested in the horses.  But there were plenty of flags to point at and there were kids EVERYWHERE so she had a pretty good time crawling around checking things out.  She is a nosey little bugger. 

Another highlight of today: Adelle did her 3rd sign.  We think she possibly does ‘milk’ and ‘all done’ and now she has done our sign for ‘puffs’.  We think…it is always so hard to tell.  But the puff sign is rather distinct and she has never moved her hands like that before.  We gave her puffs when she did it and she got really excited…but she always gets excited when she gets puffs, so who knows.  Anyway, just another fun thing to watch her do.

Our Canada Day Baby
 

Our little baby doing a few chores around the house.

We are having such a good weekend that I had to post an update mid weekend.

First off I have to say, I love my Friday’s off.  There is something just so wonderful about knowning you don’t have to work on a day everybody else does.  It makes you feel so special.  We started off our long weekend with a hike out in the mountains.  As always, Adelle had a super good time in the back pack.  She always has so much to tell us.

A little post hike fun.

Today Adelle and I are by ourselves.  Greg is out of town with some friends.  One of his buddy’s is getting married so they are off making fools of themselves for the night.  So Adelle and I have 2 days to goof around just the two of us.

Today I decided to take her to the splash park downtown.  She thought it was pretty fun.  Basically we spent our time there chasing after kids.  Mostly Adelle was squealing and looking for attention from any kid she could get it from.  Even those that just wanted to splash her.  She had so much fun.   Unfortunatly, since I was alone, I wasn’t able to get any pictures of her in the water.   She probably would have spent all afternoon there.  However, I was worried about the strong sun.  Most of her was covered up by her sunsuit, but I still felt like it is just a little too intense to hang out in for too long.  It was so cute, the water was freezing, she had little goosebumps the entire time, but she was having so much fun she didn’t even realize how cold it was!

After the pool we watched a street performer, played in the grass and hung out with somebody’s dog.  Our girl can spot a friendly dog from a mile away!!!

I know, I have a good life, husband at home, 4 day work week…but with a goofy beauty like this at home, it is just impossible not to want to spend time with her.

Tomorrow we are off to see some horse jumping!  Not exaclty our style, but our company hosts a family day every July 1st.  I assume Adelle will love it, if not for the horses, then for all the kids that we will meet!  I’m excited to have another mom and baby day, since I went back to work is is rare that it is just the two of us, so there is something a little special about having a day together.