G'n'R Out West

Greg and I have gotten to start to know our new little baby.  Last Friday when I was 18 weeks I felt my very first kicks.  Then this past Thursday (19 weeks) Greg got to feel the baby kick.  The big ones he can feel are few and far between…so we were just lucky he was close by when the baby started kicking, and that the baby kicked long enough for Greg to feel it.

Today we had our first ultrasound.  Our baby looks pretty nice…we think.  The ultrasound technician was surly and she didn’t bother to get very many clear pictures….but we thought we’d post a few anyway, just because you just have to give the new baby face time, it isn’t the baby’s fault the ultrasound technician was in a bad mood!

This is our new baby’s face….it is sort of scarey looking.

This is our new baby’s disjointed looking arms.

We have just returned home from a week in Halifax (and Sydney) and a week in Ottawa.  Greg was with us in Halifax, but Adelle and I were a two person team in Ottawa.  We had a fabulous time.  She did great with all her grandparents.  I am amazed at how well she adjusts to change.

We had a few challenging sleeps, and she certainly wasn’t sleeping as many hours out east as we might have dreamed about, but I think she did just fabulously.  She is such a great little traveller.  Below are a few of the many highlights!

 
WIth Nana (Greg’s Grandmother)

 
Goofing Around with Grandpa Ron

Greg taught Adelle a new skill on her trip….how to show Grandma Fran you really enjoyed her Blueberry pie (As always, please excuse my video skills, and I apologize if anybody gets a neck cramp trying to watch this).

 
On the receiving end of some big splashes (courtesy of Grandpa Gary).  Adelle had a great time in the water with my dad.  We got kicked out because of a thunderstorm….but were it not for that, I have no clue how long they would have been goofing off in the water.  I think there were thunderstorms everyday that we were back in Ottawa.  Like me, Adelle seems to enjoy weather.  I had her out there a few times splashing in the puddles and listening to the distant thunder!  I miss rain in Ontario.

Once again I was grateful for the sling.  Adelle had a great time at the beach with my dad, but it really did tire her out.  About 10 minutes into the walk home she said ‘I sleeping’ and then put her head down and passed out.  Sometimes I just find her too cute to deal with.

Goofing around with my mom

More goofing around.  Adelle had a blast with my brother, his girlfriend Amy and their cat that she tormented.  This little clip offers a few interesting things to note: a spectacular wipeout, some cute talking, a very determined girl pushing a very heavy toybox and her ridiculous new habit of eating rubber…sigh.  Unfortunately, erasers was just one of many things she ate that I would have preferred she passed on.  My mother’s little stuffed Koala did not fair well during one of Adelle’s naps.  Needless to say I am starting to be a lot more careful watching what she has in her mouth and what I leave her with in her crib.

We had a quick visit with Lori and Andrew in Ottawa.  Adelle was on cloud nine at their house…cats and fish!  At one point she was staring at the fish and the cat ran buy.  Paralyzed in a state of over stimulation she froze for a minute then yelled ‘cat – fish’…it was an internal battle trying to decide who should get her attention.  The cat won (or maybe the cat lost…either way, the cat got chased).  Lori and I were raised like sisters among a few other kids in our beloved co-op.  A more ideal childhood I could not envision.

Some other cute stuff:

A funny little story about Adelle from the airport:  We had an early morning flight and Adelle had the treat of a muffin from Tim Horton’s for breakfast.  She was very pleased and was walking around with it in her bag as proud as punch telling anybody in earshot that she was eating cake.  When we went through security she reluctantly handed it over to the security guard to go through the scanner with the rest of our carry on stuff.  We walked through the screening and then patiently awaited our bags to make it through the xray.  Adelle saw the top of her little tim’s bag and immediately shrieked in excitement.  A nearby security guard took if for a different kind of scream and jumped 2 feet in the air.  Then we all had a little laugh at Adelle’s over dramatic reactions to small situations.

While Adelle and I were off in Ottawa we talked a lot about Greg but I didn’t say much about when we’d see him, figuring she didn’t have a good concept of time.  When we got on our airplane home I told her we were going to see Dada.  She seemed mildly interested but it wasn’t a very impressive reaction. I pushed it fora a few minutes and then moved on.  About 10 min later she looked at me and said ‘MY DADA?’.  I said yes and then she totally flipped out from excitement.  I think after spending a few weeks listening to us call our dads ‘dad’ she got a little confused about what the term precisely meant.  When we landed, she threw her toy she had been playing with out her hand and started clapping and screaming ‘dada, dada’.  When she saw Greg she ran full speed over to him arms in the air and squeezed him tightly for a very long time.  I’d say he was rather touched.

Adelle has also started learning her first song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  It sounds a bit like ‘tinkle tinkle, star, tinkle, tinkle high, tinkle tinkle sky’.  She will often sing it to herself when we are driving and just loves it when we sing it with her.  It is pretty priceless to hear…or at least it is for Greg and I.

We had a fabulous and busy weekend.  Our friends left to head back to Ontario, we had a first birthday party to go to, the honour of becoming Godparents on Sat night, a visit with some friends from Vancouver on Sunday morning, a baby shower…and we had a babysitter for Adelle for the first time ever.  Well the first time she has ever had a teenaged baby sitter.

Adelle did great with her new babysitter Rebecca.  She didn’t cry at all, and asked about her a lot after she left.  Pretty cute.  Greg and I are now looking forward to a few fun nights out now that we know we have something that will work.

The big highlight of the weekend for Greg and I of course was becoming Godparents, well… Greg the Godparent and me the witness.  It was a very big honour.  My cousin and his wife had  a baby back in November and asked us to be his Godparents, the ceremony was this weekend and it was wonderful.  Aidan did well, despite the fact that he is teething. 

With our Godson Aidan, and his parents Kevin and Kathleen.

We have been having such a great few weeks with Adelle. I am not sure if it is because she is feeling better, or because she has just hit that age of ridiculous fun…but whatever it is I am loving it.  We’ve had friends (Roy, Tammy and their daughter Priya) visiting from Ontario for the last week.  It has been great fun.  Adelle was very eager to help Roy and Tammy with all their parenting needs…I am sure they were just so grateful!

Priya is shy, but Adelle just adores her. We have all managed to get some smiles and waves from Priya, but touching seems to be forbidden.  As long as we all keep our distance we seem to get along great.

We took a trip to the mountains for a few days and had a fabulous time.  We don’t often go and stay the night in the mountains, so it was fun to have everything so accessible.  While we were there I think I had my happiest parenting day ever.  We did a little hiking in the morning (and Adelle even walked for a good 1/2 hour…i think we made it about 200 m in that time, because there was a high cuddle to step ratio, but I was still proud of my little hiker.  After her big hike she took a nap in the backpack, then lunch, then we went swimming at the hotel.  Adelle likes swimming, but it isn’t often that the whole family is in the pool together.  I think having both of us there took swimming to a whole new level.  She was squealing and splashing and just having a great time.  She was even practice splashing on the way to the pool.

After the pool it was time for Priya’s nap so we decided to keep our hyper daughter away from the cabin and went to this huge 4 story playground at the hotel.  Adelle wasn’t quite old enough to do the climbing alone so Greg and I took turns with her.  There were two other kids there and Adelle thought that they were her buds (as usual).  She was climbing around after them.  We couldn’t keep up so I kept telling the other girls that they were too fast, then Adelle started screaming ‘I fast, I fast’.  She was in heaven chasing those girls.  We played for over an hour, and then she started to get tired.  She found a little dark black tunnel and lay down, and pronounced ‘I sleeping’.  So I said if we was tired we should go home, she immediately jumped up and said ‘I playing’ and took off.    She was so exhausted, but powered on through the rest of her play time, dinner and even actually ran around town as we did a few errands after dinner that night.

Afger dinner as we drove back to the cabin Greg and I were listening to her babble on in the back and wondering how we were ever going to get her to bed.  As it turns out that night went down as the easiest bedtime in history.  I guess she must have just been so releived to be put to bed so she didn’t even complain for 1 second.

The next morning was the icing on the cake.  She woke up in her little playpen and started playing.  She was in there with her guys (one of which is a dog).  Well wasn’t that darn dog misbehaving.  I had to giggle as I heard her repeatedly ask that disobedient dog to sit.

I just feel like so much has changed with Adelle lately.  She is talking so much and learning so much every day.  She has finally hit that age where you can really find things to do for her and with her that she really enjoys.  I felt for the longest time that I would take her places and do things with her, but mostly it was just to get a change of scenery for her.  Now she seems to really enjoy the things we do together and it is so great. 

Our Ontario buddies have left to go back home.  We are all a little sad they are gone, because we had so much fun.  Poor Adelle is so confused by the whole thing.  She keeps asking about where her friends have gone.  She got very attached to them by the time they left.