Thursday, October 19, 2006

Pictures....

Finally, blogger let me post some pictures on here.

I can't believe we've now been home with Jenna for 3 months (on the 14th). 3 months doesn't seem like a long time when you think of it, yet it feels like we've been a little happy family for much longer than that.

There are so many 'firsts' that we get to spend with Jenna and it excites me to no end. Halloween is coming up and I can't wait for her to finally be a part of my crazy Halloween kiddie party and don't get me started on Christmas.....I. CAN'T. WAIT! I was at Costco the other day and saw the most beautiful 12ft pre-lit Christmas tree that would look absolutely gorgeous in my living room but I'm having a bit of a problem convincing the husband that we NEED TO HAVE THIS TREE!!!! He's all about practicality, which I love about him, whereas I am all about wanting a beautiful Christmas tree for my beautiful daughter to climb up on! I'll work on him this weekend and see if he'll cave. Oh, and if we get a new tree........we need new ornaments! He doesn't need to know that part!! Oh the fun the Jenna and I could have shopping for Christmas tree stuff. Okay, I'm starting to hyperventilate, must calm down.

Last year, I remember just wanting to crawl into a hole a week before Christmas and not wanting to come out until after New Year's. What a difference a year makes....especially when you have a new little daughter to love. Now I look forward to all the holidays and special occasions that we get to spend with my family and friends. Even children's birthday parties get me excited and I remember dreading those the most. I would watch everyone have a little someone to dote on while I sat on the couch in the corner just feeling useless and hoping I could just disappear. All that has changed now though. Jenna has taught me to play, laugh and love like I thought I never could and I thank God for her every second of every day!


Can you see the pony tail????? Victory AT LAST!















My little cutie.
















My little dancing Sumo















Jenna looks bigger than her cousin who is a year and half older!















My nephew Elijah and his bevy of ladies















The "Godparents"

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

This, that and the other....

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone for all of us Canadians and now, like many others, I am left with heaps of leftovers with not a lot of ideas of what to do with it. By the time I decide to make something out of it, it will need to be thrown in the garbage because it’s too old. Oh well, I’m not the greatest fan of leftovers anyway. And now with Gary being out of town all week, it’s just the babe and I around here. This will be the first time Daddy will be away from us for so long. Last night I heard Jenna rustling in her crib a bit so I took it as an opportunity to take her out and come and sleep with me. I’m such a little scardy cat, but it sure was nice having her in my bed to keep me company. I will really try to let her have a good nights sleep in her own bed tonight though.

Jenna has recently decided that she’s not really interested in her long naps during the day. She use to have 2 naps that were about 2 hours long and now I’m lucky if I get her to nap for an hour each time. She has now learnt how to stand up in her crib, which, when I witnessed it the first time on her monitor (we have a video monitor and I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone!!), it freaked me right out. I was talking on the phone with my sister and heard that she had stopped whimpering after I put her down. I looked at the monitor and there she was, grabbing the camera off the wall. I think I scared her when I came running into the room. And now, if I don’t sit in the rocking chair beside her crib until she’s totally asleep, she’ll take the opportunity to stand up as soon as I leave the room. I usually come back when she’s gotten up and she just stares at me wondering “how does she know I’m standing the minute I stand up???” Little does she know that even when she’s older, I’ll know everything!! Even if I have to hide that camera up in the ceiling where she’ll never suspect it….I’ll KNOW EVERYTHING!!!

Our REAL appointment on Friday to the US Consulate in Calgary went fine. It was a long, boring day, but Jenna now has a US Visa that expires in 2011. We obviously won’t need it for that long since she will be getting her Canadian Citizenship soon, but it’s comforting to know that I will never have to go through that awful process again!

Here are a few new pictures of our little wonton…..

(okay, blogger is not playing nice tonight so I will try again tomorrow as I am toooooo tired to keep trying tonight!)

A giggle to melt your heart.....

Gary and I love to play this new game with Jenna where we let her chase us around the island in the kitchen. She giggles like there's no tomorrow and maybe, one day, we'll let her catch us!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Long time no post....

So it’s been a while since I’ve been able to blog. Could it be that I now have a WALKING, yes, WALKING child to follow around all day! Yes, my baby girl decided, pretty much on her own that she was finally ready to walk, and walking has been the name of the game pretty much since then.

Let’s back up a bit shall we?

Her baptism a couple of weeks of ago was wonderful. It was a long day for her but she managed to keep a smile on her lovely little face all day. The actual ceremony was pretty quick. A total of about 9 families had their babies baptized and the ceremony from beginning to end only took about an hour. We were warned during our baptism classes that the priest who was performing it is always very generous with the holy water, and man oh man, did he ever soak those kiddies. I mean whole hand fulls of water 3 times over…those babies were soaked. And he was just as generous with the holy oil that went on their foreheads. I could spike Jenna’s hair with it!! All in all, it was great fun and Jenna didn’t mind it all that much. And I was so worried that her hair was going to get messed up…silly mamma. After the baptism, we hosted a dinner at our local Chinese restaurant for about 40 people and it turned out really good. My sister and my niece flew out for it and it was so nice to have the two cousins together again.

Right after we got home from the baptism, we sat Jenna on her play mat and that’s when she had made up her mind to just get up and start walking. She probably was tired of Izzy (who now corrects you and says “No, Isabelle”) running circles around her all the time and all her other little friends (Sadie and Vanessa), that she’d just had enough of being immobile. Now she walks, albeit slowly, likes Frankenstein with her hands stretched out above her head. Too. Cute.

She’s growing too fast. Where is there a pause button on babies so that they can stay little forever? Her appetite sure has slowed down and has now taken to waving her hand furiously across her highchair to avoid any more contact with food. Needless to say, this mommy is getting a taste in patience as there always seems to be a mess all over the place. But I figure she’ll go through spurts where she’ll eat a lot and then other times when food just doesn’t interest her at all. All I know is that she sure is growing and getting heavier and heavier everyday so I’m not all that concerned that she’s not getting enough to eat. Of course, show her a cookie or something sweet and that swinging arm gets tucked in gently by her side. I think my little wonton has got a sweet tooth (I call her my little wonton when I wrap her up in her towel after her bath!!!).

Other than that, our days our filled with playing, eating and sleeping and before you know it, it’s bedtime, only to start all over again the next day. Jenna and I are all by our lonesome next week while Gary is out of town so that will be a challenge. She loves playing with her Daddy every night before and after dinner and I’m sure she’ll miss him loads (as will I) but it’s only a week…right? Sometimes when he calls during the day, I put him on speaker phone to talk to her. At first she gets a little scared, probably wondering why Daddy is in the phone, but then as he talks to her she has the biggest smile on her face and it’s enough to melt a mother’s heart. He’s a wonderful father (and husband for that matter) and it’s so nice to see the excitement in her face when he walks into a room.

So yesterday, we had an appointment at the American Consulate office to get Jenna’s US Visa for our trip to California in November. Their offices are in Calgary and, for those who don’t know, it’s a very long, very boring 3 hour drive from Edmonton so we packed up the truck and woke Jenna up at 6:00 to start our journey. I thought we were going to be late as our appointment was at 10:00am. We finally got there at about 9:50 so Gary dropped us off at the door so he could find parking, and in downtown Calgary, that’s not for the faint of heart. I got in and waited for a guard to escort me upstairs and he was looking on his sheet and he couldn’t find our appointment. Then he asked me to bring out my sheets and there, clear as freaking day, the date on the top of the form says OCTOBER 6, 2006. He says he’s sorry but our appointment is not until Friday and that I’d have to come back then. The first words out of my mouth were “My husband is going to kill me”. Probably not the best words to say in front of a Consulate Guard. Well my heart sank. So I headed for the door wondering what the heck I was going to say to Gary to get me out of this predicament…should I lie and say it was their fault? As I was walking out, he was coming in and I broke the news to him. He just looked at me, shook his head and we headed back to the truck. I asked him if he was upset and he said “Sh*t happens” and that was the end of it. I was fully prepared for him to pack Jenna up and leave me standing at the side of the road, but no, he was very understanding. Did I already say what a great guy he was? This is a guy who runs a very demanding business and is busy 26 hours in a day and for him to even take a day off to drive me there was very generous on his part…..only to go back again on Friday. I may be on my own, but that’s okay. Serves me right I suppose. When does Mommy brain go away?

Anyway, I’ll try to post some pictures…hopefully blogger will let me tonight. If not, I’ll try again tomorrow.

Jenna before she started walking unassisted. She'll find anything to push around and it doesn't even have to be a toy with wheels. Chairs and stools are fair game.















Again with the chocolates....I'm such a sucker! But look how adorable these turned out!