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!