Finally caught up!

Ok, I know it's been a VERY long time since I've updated my blog and I apologize sincerely. The past month has been crazy busy, especially since we were away for 9 days at the cottage. Nevertheless, I am finally caught up....you'll have to scroll down and start from "Canada Day Weekend" and scroll your way back up to the present.

It really is amazing how quickly time goes by and how fast Jessica is growing up. She is crawling around on her hands and knees now, and pulls herself up onto everything (and can get back down too!) She loves to just sit on her knees, bounce around and play. She is pointing at everything and recognizes, points and says "BOOK", "DUCK", "BIKE", "DOG", "CAT" and "BALL". She also recognizes and points at the Canadian Flag whenever she sees it. I think her all-time favourite "toys" are BOOKS!!

Jess is sleeping 11-12h at night (in bed around 7:00 pm), napping 2x a day (for about an hour each) and eating like crazy!! She is finally enjoying fruits - after I figured out the best thing to do is feed her fruits first! So she is finally having well balanced meals (actually, she eats better than we do! =) - fruits, meat, veggies & grains. She is able to feed herself some foods, including cut-up whole wheat pita or toast, avocado slices, shredded chicken, cheese strips and diced bananas.

As I mentioned in my "Cottage Weekend" post, she now has 8 teeth! The bottom two incisors came in while we were away. As you can see in some of the photos, her hair is growing quickly too, but I refuse to cut it because I want it long! Hopefully I'll be able to put it in a little ponytail
on top of her head because those little clips are, although extremely cute, definitely hazardous.

I think that's about it! A month and a half left before I go back to work *sigh* - we are interviewing for home day care providers right now but haven't found anyone we love yet. So please think of us, we have to find someone soon!! Oh, and we start Water Toddlers next week - it should be fun, Jess is sooo cute in the water!

Bye for now!

Cottage Weekend - July 14-22

Every year for the past 3 or 4 years, Russ and I have spent a full week at the Combermere cottage. We've always enjoyed being up there, just the 2 of us, for a whole week of NOTHING (ie. relaxing, reading magazines, chillin' at the dock, catching some rays, swimming in the lake and scrapbooking for me!). It was a little different this year with Jessica - a lot of fun, but also exhausting! Mostly because she decided to wake up at 5:30 every single morning! Not to mention that two teeth came through that week as well, which meant 2 extra sleepless nights. Believe it or not, but we were actually looking forward to coming home to sleep in our own beds, and not right next to Jessica's room (like at the cottage, where we could hear every little noise she made!!) Nevertheless, we had lots of fun with her.

Jessica went wading and swimming in the lake:


We also went to Hinterland Beach....



...where she met a little boy named "Zen":


We didn't have enough room in the car to bring her exersaucer, so Jess spent a lot of time in her Jolly Jumper (which she didn't seem to mind one bit!!)


We also visited Jess' 2nd cousin Ava, who is 9 weeks older than Jessica. Ava sat happily playing with a toy while Jess crawled around the room as soon as we put her down. That's our little girl!


Our friends Sab & Dan and Mike & Ofie joined us for the 2nd weekend, which was a lot of fun. They've been coming up to the cottage for a few years now. They really seemed to enjoy playing with Jess, which gave us some free time (we finally got to take the pedal boat out!). But with Jessica's 5:30 am wake-up calls, we left the cottage to go for a walk after nursing her to give our guests a little extra sleep - it was a chilly at that time, but absolutely gorgeous out!!


All in all, it was a great week. Jessica slept relatively well and it was so much fun to play with her. Russ really enjoyed spending the entire week with Jess! She learned some new "tricks" while we were there - whenever we would ask "Jessica, where is the "duck/flag/boat?" she would look around and point at it (there is a stuffed duck in the cottage and a flag and boat by the dock in the lake) It was really cute!

We are definitely looking forward to spending another week at the cottage with Jessica next year...hopefully she'll be sleeping in later then! =)

10 Months Old

On July 12th, Jess celebrated her 10 month birthday. Every month that passes I am still in disbelief at how quickly time flies when you're having this much fun!! =)

Our little girl just won't sit still! It was a big challenge to get her to sit for a picture with her bear. these shots were good enough! =)

Water Babies

Jessica is an official graduate of Water Babies!! We took a two-week crash course (every morning from 9:00-9:30 am) and Jess loved being in the water right from the start! She learned to kick her feet, splash with her hands, jump in the water (with the help of Mommy, of course), float with a life jacket on, slide down the baby slide and even dunk her head under water (after which she proceeds to move her body like a crazy mermaid!) =) But she didn't cry once and (of course) was full of smiles the entire time - we're so proud of you Jess!

Her favourite part (and mine) was always the last 5 minutes of the class, which we spent in the hot tub!

Here are some photos from the one day that Russ had a "doctor's appointment" and took Jess to her swimming class:

First thing Jess did when they got into the pool was look for me: =)


Daddy & Jess, in and out of the pool:


Playing "I Spy":


Lounging in the Hot Tub:


Next week we start Water Toddlers!! =)

Canada Day Weekend

It seems like so long ago now, but I'll do my best to remember what Jessica's 1st Canada Day weekend was like....

We spent it at the cottage, like we do every year, since July 1st is Grandpa George and Grandma Tilly's wedding anniversary. Jess loves it there! She couldn't get enough of Beeker (the cat) - every time she saw him she squealed with delight and crawled after him as fast as her hands and knees would take her.


The weather wasn't the greatest, so we spent most of the weekend indoors - letting Jessica's taste buds experiment a few "treats":


Here's a photo I love of her playing in the hanging basket chair on the porch:


Of course, it wouldn't be Canada Day without a trip to the dock to visit the Canadian Flag (which Jess loved pointing at!!):