Saturday, December 19, 2009

Little Susie Homemaker ...

Jess was crabbing last night so I took her into
the living room desperately looking for something
to cheer her up ... and saw a pile of unfolded
dish cloths/towels that had just been cleaned.

She was quite interested in "helping Mommy"
fold the cloths (and not too bad at it actually ...)

What a cutie :)


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What Does Santa Say?

Ho-Ho-Ho! Jess was hanging out with Mommy
yesterday afternoon and we were looking at
Christmas decorations together. She's been rather
enthralled/terrified of the big, jolly man this
holiday season so far (she's met Santa 3 times so far...)
and we've been trying to convince her that he's
nice and fun to visit (of course, her yearly pic with
Santa has her on a stool in FRONT of him because
she refused to sit on his knee ...). Anyhoo, the following
is the result of our chit-chat yesterday afternoon ...


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Cuckoo!

Jess has been enjoying her Kindermusik class
SO much - it's so incredible to see how much she's
grown and changes as a result of her time in this
class - we just finished our first little mini-series
"Do-Si-Do" and have moved on to "Feathers"
which has a bunch of "birdie" songs and Jess came
out with this the other day ... all on her own ...


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O Christmas Tree!


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Santa's little elf was very "helpful" as we decorated our first-ever
REAL LIVE Christmas Tree! We're VERY excited to have the
lovely smell of Fraser Fir in our home as opposed to the shabby,
little fake "apartment" tree ...


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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Christmas Shoot @ Home 2009


With Nanny helping direct smiles, I managed to catch
some GREAT pics of our little 16 month old munchkin
as we prepare for her second Christmas - our first in our
new home in Thorold ... a very exciting time for us! We're
excited to NOT be travelling over the holidays for the
first time in almost 10 years and are thankful to have
some family coming our way instead! More Christmas
pics will follow (and maybe some video too!) as the festive
season continues :) Enjoy!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Fall Fun!

Just a few pics of our happy little girl enjoying
the beautiful fall day (Nov. 8).
She'll be 15 months old tomorrow ... it's so
hard to believe she's growing so fast ...




Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Jess "Chatting" on her Bookmark Phone (no hands!)



Just a short video of Jessie
"talking on the phone"
(aka. her bookmark! HAHAHA!)

Her Personality Grows ...

It's amazing to watch Jessie change and grow.
Lately we've noticed SO much growth in her
personality. she's BIG into mimicking what we
do (which isn't necessarily a GOOD thing ... we
really have to watch what we say and do now!!)
But it IS amazing ... she's such a little lady now!



Jess has always LOVED music - and she
really enjoys playing Daddy's guitar with him
or the piano with Mommy!




One of her latest is grabbing ANYTHING (sometimes using
just her hand alone!) and "talking on the phone" - she's used
bookmarks, remote controls, calculators, her hand, you name it!
She babbles, pauses, laughs, and babbles some more ... cutie!



Jessie just graduated from her BebePod to
her new BoosterPod and she LOVES it - she
wants to sit in it ALL the time - when she watches
her cartoons on CBC Kids Morning, when she
reads a story, eats a snack ... she LOVES it!
Funny girl! She's really starting to "assert" her
preferences for things - it's incredible to think
of how far she's come since a year ago at this time ...
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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Jessie's Knitted Dress


Jessie's wearing a knitted dress that my
Nanny made - it took some coaxing to
get her into it and to get her to sit still,
but these are just some of the pics that
I snapped this afternoon in our little
photo shoot in the upstairs spare
bedroom - Jess is 13.5 months old here.




Her eyes still continue to amaze me in every way.
I'm so in love with my little girl.




My curious little girl couldn't help but
look out the window and wave and say
"hi" to the passersby - even though they
couldn't hear her through the closed window.
She's a cutie!!

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Look Out World ... Here She Comes!


With Daddy and Mommy both watching
together, Jessie took her first steps today
just one day shy of her 11 month birthday!
(These steps are like #'s 4, 5 & 6 or something!)
Enjoy!


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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Jessie's New Playroom

Our first "major" project at 26 Clairmont has
been to provide a safe place for Jessie to play.
We converted one of the four upstairs
bedrooms into the following playroom for Jess
and are finally nearing the end - just a few
finishing touches to add - hooks for the curtains,
the rest of the artwork on the walls ...
The TOYS are in, and that, of course,
is the important thing!



It's a mostly IKEA space - the rug, table/stools
and curtains all came from there. The books are
an assortment of new and old (ones Meg and I had
when we were little girls!) Coincidentally, the
bookshelf was a really old, awful one I had
in my classroom in Montreal and had taken
home to sand and paint and since I got pregnant
and then moved, it never made it back into my
classroom. So, technically, I'm a theif, but at
least it's still being put to a bit of an
"educational use" ... we painted it the same
blue-green colour as the opposing wall ...



Right now, Jess likes to slide the stools off
of the table and listen to them crash on the
floor, but soon enough this table will
provide a safe space for colouring and crafts!



A very generous member of our church
graciously dontated a couch/chair set to us
when we first moved in and we slip covered the
couch (to both protect it and make it fit better
with the playroom 'decor') and used the chair
in our "reading nook" in the hallway.




How could I resist? Ken was holding her up to
the top of the playroom door ... she's so adorable!

Actually, you'll notice in this pic that we painted
the room two colours (when I say "we" I really
mean to say "my mom" when she was visiting
in April ...) The very light blue-green colour is called
"Spring Air" and the yellow is called "Sun Hat" -
both of which are from the Debbie Travis line at
Canadian Tire. These are a very close match to
the blue-green and yellow found in the IKEA rug
we chose for the room.

Mommy's Little Helper

Proof of Jessie the queen of sorting things ...

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Sunday, July 5, 2009

Like Mother, Like Daughter ...

Well, I hesitate to say that my daughter
appears to be moving towards the same
Type A-ish personality as I have ...

Shopping for socks seemed all cute
(and it was) but it has led to much MORE
organization on Jessie's part lately ...
She is now into sorting things.

She puts a toy IN the box, takes a toy
OUT of the box. Lines them up, makes
two separate (indescriminate?!) piles,
then mixes those piles up into two
different piles. She moves a toy, throws
a toy, slides a toy, hides a toy. She'll
put a particular toy up high on a shelf
and take another one from up high and
put it on a shelf down low ...

Cuteness at its best ... but I think she's
starting to freak her daddy out a bit ...
he's already got one "organizer" in his
life; does he need two?!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Big Daddy Mac Rocks Bathtime


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No caption necessary ...

Happy 1st Canada Day Jessie!



Our extremely patriotic daughter waving
her flag ... the funny thing was, we actually
had to tell her to SHAKE the flag because if
we said "wave" she'd immeditately drop
the flag and start waving her hands like
she was saying "hi" or "bye" to someone ...
tooooooo cute!



Jessie spent her 1st Canada Day with good
friends Lindsey and Dave from Dryden who
were down visiting Dave's family who are
from Thorold. We went out for lunch,
went to the Beaverdams Park 1st of July
activities and watched some of the live
entertainment and then had a BBQ at
our home. Jessie was asleep for the fireworks,
but they were great (for a small town!) and
we could see them from our front yard!




Jessie also had her very first swing ride
in Beaverdams Park - the swing was WAY
too big, but she enjoyed it nonetheless!

Canada Day was a big day for Jess ...
we happily welcomed her top two
1st molars - yup ... TWO teeth in
one day - the first was through when
we woke up in the morning (after a
very looooooong night) and the second
we noticed peeking through after
supper! So that's 11 teeth now!
We're still waiting for the cuspids
(eye teeth) top and bottom to show
themselves, but she has bypassed
them and has 3 of her 1st molars
already ... this whole teething thing
should be done soon *we hope* ...
we could really use some GOOD sleep!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Cinderelly, Cinderelly ...



Jessie enjoyed a fun playdate with her new friend
Nicola (who's a year older than Jess) and Nicola
thought it'd be tons of fun if they dressed up as
Disney Princesses. Nicola was Snow White and Jess
was Cinderella ... Jessie loved Nicola's dress (much
to Nicola's dismay, I'm afraid!) and didn't know quite
how to handle wearing such puffy sleeves ... but she
soon got used to the idea and was posing for the
camera as the princess we all know she is!

I've said it once, and I say it again, CUTIE PATOOTIE!


Thursday, June 25, 2009

A Better Night

Well, we finally got some sleep last night - minus the three or four hour party! She did wake up around 10:30 and think she was going to have a party, but we finally managed to quash that idea and get her back to sleep within the hour - thankfully! The rest of the night was good - a couple of wakings, but quickly back to sleep and in her crib for a large part of that ... perhaps we're finally making some headway!

Time to batton down the hatches ... sounds like at thunderstorm approaching ... hopefully it won't wake Jessie up from her nap!!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Shopping For Socks

Yup, she's a silly one ...
Jessie decided to go shopping for socks
this afternoon ... in the living room ...
YES, she put the socks into
the shopping cart all by herself ...
YES, when she does silly, goofy things like
this, I love her more and more and
don't mind the insane nights as much
(she could be crabby during the daytime
too, right?!)






Silly little girl ...

FYI, tonight has gone MUCH better so far -
we have several fans running along with
one of what will be two or three portable
AC units to try and keep cool ... we think
the "white noise" is helping drown out
the crazy, loud (inconsiderate!) motor-
cyclists that rev their engines at the
intersection near our house which
subsequently results in Jessie being
startled awake ... we'll see though ...
fingers crossed!


Tuesday, June 23, 2009

And then ... sometimes we DO figure it out ...

No sooner do I write the post below about how
we wish we knew what was going on in Jessie's
head sometimes, than we decide to try
letting her spoon feed herself (as opposed
to the food being flug EVERYWHERE amidst
a total baby meltdown ...) and voila ...
below is the result ...


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I guess sometimes mommies and daddies
do know a thing or two ...

Crabby Baby

I have a lot of respect for those moms that stay up all hours of the night, constantly dodge flying food from the high chair and have to wear ear plugs to avoid having their head implode because of how LOUD their crabby babies are ... since our return from PEI, I've been one of those moms. Naturally, we're not 100% certain whether it's teeth, the re-arrangement of her nursery furniture, the travel ... she's just crabby. If only she could just tell us what her problem is ... *sigh*.

As dedicated country music fans (we often have the local country radio station or our tv turned to CMT), we owe a MAJOR thanks to country musician Darius Rucker (former lead for Hootie and the Blowfish!) for helping Ken and I survive these ... frustrating ... moments - it seems one of his latest songs "It Won't Be Like This For Long" comes on JUST when we need to hear it ... so much so that I've even thought of writing him a letter just to THANK him for such a great song! Even though it's from a dad's perspective, it speaks volumes to all those moms out there too ...

He didn't have to wake up
He'd been up all night
Layin’ there in bed listenin’
To his new born baby cry
He makes a pot of coffee
He splashes water on his face
His wife gives him a kiss and says
It gonna be OK

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon we'll look back laughin’
At the week we brought her home
This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
‘Cause it won't be like this for long

Four years later ‘bout 4:30
She's crawling in their bed
And when he drops her off at preschool
She's clinging to his leg
The teacher peels her off of him
He says what can I do
She says now don't you worry
This’ll only last a week or two

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon you'll drop her off
And she won’t even know you're gone
This phase is gonna fly by
If you can just hold on
It won’t be like this for long

Some day soon she'll be a teenager
And at times he'll think she hates him
Then he'll walk her down the aisle
And raise her veil
But right now she's up and cryin’
And the truth is that he don't mind
As he kisses her good night
And she says her prayers

He lays down there beside her
‘Til her eyes are finally closed
And just watchin’ her it breaks his heart
Cause he already knows

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon that little girl is gonna be
All grown up and gone
Yeah, this phase is gonna fly by
So, he's tryin’ to hold on

‘Cause it won’t be like this for long
It won’t be like this for long

You can watch the video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Rm-Vgf7h8

Enjoy!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Living It Up In P.E.I ...

Apparently in no particular order, below you'll find five videos of Jessie's adventure in PEI thus far. I don't know why it's not loading them in order, but I'm not sure anyone but me actually cares - at least they're THERE right?!?
So ... Jess and I decided to ditch Daddy and come and visit ... HIS family! So far we've had a great few days and are looking forward to more visiting over the next few days! So far, Jessie has discovered, what I'm now affectionately calling her "PEI Squeal" (as you'll see in the videos!). As well, she is enjoying tormenting her "uncle" Sneakers (much to his dismay, I'm afraid!)
All in all, it's been a great trip so far! Enjoy!

Saturday Morning


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Sunday Evening


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Saturday Afternoon


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Sunday Afternoon


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Monday Afternoon


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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Stuck?!

Yes, our little Jessie is VERY close to walking ...
and thanks to a hand-me-over from Jack (not
exactly a "hand-me-DOWN" since he's the same
age as Jessie!) she's EVEN closer! This was
shot this afternoon after she wowed us with
her super-speedy furniture surfing!
She's not-so-great at "steering" yet, as you
will see ... she gets just a LITTLE bit
frustrated when she gets ... stuck.


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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Jessie's First Visit to the Beach!

We decided to have a little picnic over the May
Long Weekend and went to Port Colborne, ON
on Lake Erie for a little change of scenery. We
found this nice beach and had our lunch and let
Jess play in the sand for a bit!










For some strange reason, I don't have a good shot of her
eating the sand ... but rest assured she did get a mouthful
or two and thought herself quite the superstar for doing
so! We had quite the time getting her cleaned off before
we got back into the car! Good fun! It was a great day!