Bad Blogger

Okay, okay I admit it, I've been a bad blogger the last couple of days, the truth is that I've been too busy to blog. I know that sounds like an excuse and that blogging should be my number one priority after parenting but it's the truth :)

Here's a quick summary of the last couple of days. On Friday Aunt Boo came over for a visit and to help me out with some baby shower shopping I had to do, then Friday night we went over to our friends Tim and Katie's house for a BBQ with our other friends Chris and Alex (who were in town from Cincinnati for a wedding) and Jamie, we all had a nice time but I guess Christine was bored because fell asleep at the party (I can't take her anywhere :)

On Saturday we left Christine with Aunt Boo, Grandma and Grandpa while we headed out of town to Huntsville for the wedding of our friend Chris and his lovely bride Selena. The wedding was beautiful (it was outside by the lake) and the party was a fun time.

On Sunday I co-hosted a baby shower for my good friend Erin with my friend Sara. Christine and Ben got to spend the day together playing and swimming. The baby shower was lots of fun even though it was a million degrees out (at least).

Anyhoo, Christine and I have a lot to do around the house today including lots of playtime together since I haven't seen much of her in the last couple of days. Here's a picture of the happy girl this morning. I promise to be a much better blogger in the upcoming week.

Tambourine Girl

Here's a picture of Christine playing the tambourine for me and laughing, she's such a little showgirl. Not a whole lot new around here, I've being doing some organizing for a shower that my friend Sara and I are hosting on Sunday for my expectant friend Erin, let's just hope her little bean decides to stay nice and warm in her stomach until then.

Today Christine and I played with Ben around the house then went to the library this afternoon to pick up some new books, even a short walk to the library made us both hot in this 40 degree weather (with the humidex). After the library was supposed to be nap time but the first time in weeks Christine fussed and fussed and refused to nap, she is now cranky and sad so it will probably be a early bedtime tonight (for her not me, I can stay up as late as I want :)

Christine Van Winkle

To begin with I want to state that this is by no means a complaint of any kind.

Christine has been sleeping like crazy today, after a very busy Sunday (we attended a shower for our friend Michele, she is expecting a friend for Christine in September) Christine went to bed at 7:45 pm last night and got up this morning at 9:45 am, yes she slept for 14 hours straight. This morning we went to the mall for some shopping, walked back then after lunch she had a two hour nap. Right now it's 6:30 pm and she's acting like she's ready for bed already (rubbing her eyes, yawning), at this rate with this much sleep she's going to grow a foot overnight :)

Anyhoo, here's a picture of us playing baseball outside this afternoon, Christine was clapping and cheering me on :)

Please raise your hand if you are a girl

On Saturday we all traveled to London to visit with our good friends Mark, Tracy and their son Timothy and Nick, Marsha and their son little Thomas. We had originally planned to spend the whole day lounging in the pool as we had anticipated very warm temperatures as the rest of the week had been. However on the way to London we encountered torrential downpours and the rain stayed most of the day once we arrived, the boys and Tracy did make it into the pool towards the end of the visit once the sun reappeared but Christine and I chickened out.

We all had a really nice time, lots of baby playtime, baby talk, wonderful food and good friends, we look forward to future visits with the whole gang. Here's a picture of the three little ones, in my mind it's captioned "Please raise your hand if you are a girl". Left to right are Timothy, Christine and Thomas (only 7 weeks old), they are all so very cute :)

A Day at the Dog Races

Well we didn't spend the day at the dog races as our headline implies (do they even have dog races you can go and watch anymore?) but we did spend some time watching Molly Brown the dog run around and around the pool this evening and it was hilarious to Christine. We went over to her Grandpa's house for dinner and a swim and spent some visiting time with Grandpa, Uncle Mike, Aunt Boo, Uncle Luke and Amber. The picture above is of Amber and Christine watching Molly and giggling.

Aunt Boo Playdate

A relatively quiet day around the house today due to impending rain storms and a pile up of housework. Christine and I played lots of games, she practiced her spinning and sliding around the kitchen, Ben and Christine had a couple good games of tickle wars (not sure who won, it might have been a tie). I also did some cyber-sleuthing on my friend Erin - I know when people don't check the blog as they should be, then I worry about them - especially if they are 9 months pregnant.

After dinner Christine's Aunt Kathleen came over for a playdate, and true to her nickname Aunt Boo got a bunch of giggles out of her by playing peek-a-boo. Christine also got to show off her new and improved cruising skills, the latest update - she can now go left as well as right, we're so proud :)

Slip Sliding Away

Well still no crawling from Christine but lots of sliding around on the kitchen floor, at least my floors will be clean, I wonder if she does windows?

We had a really nice day here, did some grocery shopping, went for a walk to the library, played at the park (Christine really liked watching the bigger kids play at the splash pad) and had lots of at home play time. Christine has also begun clapping in earnest when she sees other people doing so on TV (like on Wheel of Fortune), it's very cute.

Spin me right round baby, right round

Christine's got a new party trick, she may not yet be crawling (or doing her own laundry - jeesh!), but she is spinning! While seated she can spin around and around in a circle to grasp anything within 360 degrees of her grabby little hands. In the picture above she was taking a break from her spin dancing on the kitchen floor.

Other than that it's been a nice day around here, not quite as muggy and hot. Christine and I got to do some shopping at the mall this afternoon while Ben was out working but we didn't buy anything exciting.

Ahoy me mateys!

Christine and I spent a nice cool day indoors, we practiced standing, cruising and Christine is ever so close to crawling, I must admit I crawled around the living room trying to show her how it's done (I'm sure I'll further embarrass myself in the future with her as well)

We also played with some tissue paper, it's amazing how the simplest things will entertain a baby, it fascinated her for about an hour. I also made a tissue paper "pirate hat" for her so we could play Pirates of Mississauga and look for buried treasure (i.e. cheerios). Here's a picture of her in her hat before the big hunt.

Prune Face

Here's a picture of Christine from her dinnertime tonight, on the menu was Sweet Potatoes with Chicken and Prunes with Pears. Christine managed to eat the sweet potatoes fairly easily with not too much mess but when it came time to eat her prunes she got a little fussy and decided to make a mess.

One thing I've learned since becoming a parent is babies are messy and even once you clean them they don't stay clean long, I'm sure once Christine is a toddler she'll be clean as a whistle all the time :)

Playing House

Yesterday in a fit of creative madness I "made" a play house for Christine out of a box our BBQ came in. I'm hoping that once she learns to crawl into to it will be a source of amusment and distraction for days to come :)

Here's a picture of Christine playing inside of it, her favourite part was when Molly stuck her head inside the window to look around, fun times :)

Rain Rain Go Away

All rain and no outside play make Christine a grumpy girl. Yes my little bumblebee is a touch grumpy/whiny today and I think because we haven't got a chance to play outside very much this week (with rain today and Monday). At least she can continue to practice her cruising around the coffee table as you can see above.

We did go the doctor this morning for her nine month check-up and all is well. Christine now weighs a whopping 18 pounds 1 oz and is 28 inches tall, this is actually a little on the small size (about the 30th percentile for her age) but the doctor thinks she is a very healthy girl.

The grass is always greener...

Here's a picture of Christine outside playing this afternoon on the grass, as you can probably tell she is just about to put some grass in her mouth, prior to this she had put an old dead leaf in her mouth - mmmmm.....organic.

I'm trying to teach her two things that should prevent this in the future, first of all and most important the word "no", she seems to understand that it means stop doing whatever you are doing and she will stop but then a second later she'll resume whatever I've told her no to (putting things in her mouth mostly). Secondly I'm trying to teach her that not everything should go in your mouth automatically and that some things are yucky or dirty (leaves, kleenex, dog toys, dog fur - you get the idea).

Anybody out there have any other ideas of what I can?

Cruisin' along

Quiet day around the house with lots of catch-up sleep for Christine after a busy weekend. She also spent much of the day practicing her cruising around the furniture, as you can see from the picture above it's hard work and sometimes you have to stick out your tongue to be able to concentrate and navigate those corners correctly :)

(One of Christine's faithful viewers will probably remember a similar expression on my face when I used to play video games back in the day)

Party for Thomas Charles

Today Christine and I went to a baby shower for little Thomas Charles, son of our friends Nick and Marsha. We had a really nice time and got to spend lots of time with Christine's friend Timothy and his mom Tracy and our friend Heather, it was great to catch up with each other. Christine showed everyone her new "cruising" skills; if she holds onto furniture (ie. a couch or table) she can cruise/walk around it, the only problem is she can only seem to go to the right, not the left so she sometimes needs to be picked up and put back at the starting point again so she can continue practice walking - very cute :)

I was busy most of the day holding our very busy friend Christine so I didn't get the chance to snap any pictures, but here is a shot from yesterday. In the picture Christine is being held up by her strong Uncle Luke to look over the neighbour's fence, she thought it was lots of the fun and the neighbour thought she was a "sweetie" so I'm guessing they didn't mind either.

Practice Makes Perfect

Here's a picture I snapped of Christine practicing her standing while holding onto Molly for support, although Molly make look a little put out she doesn't seem to mind the tugging and pulling that Christine does to her on a daily basis.

We had a nice time swimming at the pool today then had a belated birthday dinner for Amber, now Christine is in bed dreaming sweet dreams and looking forward to a big play date at a baby shower tomorrow.

Domestic Bliss

Christine and I are having a very domesticated day around the house. Some light housework, laundry and baking bread and other yummy things, we are so Martha today :)

Christine is helping me out by having a really long morning nap and generally being a very good girl overall, lots of smiles and giggles and little crying and whining. She has started "cruising" around furniture by standing and holding onto the couch or table and walking around it, it's only a matter of time before we have to begin baby-proofing in earnest.

Laundry Day

Today Christine and I hung around the house doing some household including laundry, as you can see above Christine is quite a big help in this department.

Other than that it was a quiet day until bathtime when Christine threw her first temper tantrum. She really wanted to try to reach up to the side of the tub and pull herself up, however there was no way she was able to do this without falling and banging her head so I gently told her "no" and continued washing her. Well apparently this was not cool with her and she began to cry, yell, kick and splash - nothing I could do would calm her down and she continued to try to pull herself up on the side. We eventually had to end bathtime early and get ready for bed. I think she was acting that way because she's had such a busy couple of days with not enough naps, hopefully I won't have to witness Baby Hulk anytime soon again (you wouldn't like her when she's angry).

Lazy Hazy Days of Summer

We had a really nice family day both today and yesterday. Sunday afternoon Christine, Ben, Aunt Kathleen and I all went to the Mississauga Waterfront Festival as VIPs thanks to the Mississauga Arts Council raffle - we got free passes and food and most important free close-by parking. The festival was fun but it was really hot and sunny so we didn't stay long. After that we came home to await the arrival of Uncle Geof and Aunt Brenda home from their honeymoon, they stopped by our place home from the airport to pick up their car and of course their beloved dog Bear. We had a nice visit with them and heard all about their amazing trip to Italy, they also brought us home gifts; a bottle of wine, a bottle of olive oil and the most beautiful rosary for Christine that they bought at the Vatican, it is Italian glass and is so pretty, it should be something she has and treasures for a lifetime. Then we were off to Grandpa's house for swim and for some birthday celebrations for Amber -
Happy Birthday Amber from all of us, especially your youngest friend - Christine :)

Today we went to our friend's Jerry and Michele's house for a belated Canada Day BBQ. We had lots of delicious food and great company, Christine got to play with her little friends Olivia and Ethan and of course Morrie the dog. As you can see in the picture above Ethan and Christine were playing golf to the best of their abilities. Now we are back at home and Christine is in bed catching up on some much needed sleep after a very busy weekend.

Happy Canada Day!

Christine wants to wish all of her faithful visitors a very Happy Canada Day. Today we are going shopping for Uncle Geof and Aunt Brenda's wedding gift and celebrating the day with family.

Here's a PG rated picture of Christine in the tub last night, this morning I also got to bathe Molly Brown the dog as she decided to roll around in a mud puddle at the park - that's exactly how I wanted to spend my Saturday morning!