My little darling.

It's been a long time since I last posted. I went back to work and found out very quickly that there is simply no time on the weekdays to do much constructive. And the weekends are now used to catch up on errands and spend time with Ellie. Despite the time going by so incredibly fast, things are so amazing with the three of us. During that first year I was so sleep deprived that I really didn't enjoy myself too much and now that we're all getting more sleep, everything is so great. Ellie is so much fun to be around.

We leave for New Brunswick today to go visit Daddy's family. Oh boy, are they in for some fun!!! Because of my nerves and a yell from her at 4am (I wonder what she's dreaming about?), I have been up since then and here I am blogging.

Here's an update on her development:

Ellie can say more than 15 words. They just keep coming! It's ridiculous how well she communicates.

She can climb the couch and get down all by herself.....and now she tries to climb everything else.

She is starting to use utensils. She gets lots of help, but she knows what a spoon and fork does.

She knows where her ear and nose are and will point them out to you when asked.

She loves pushing the cat around on the kitchen chairs.

She has started to walk! Slow and steady, but yesterday she beat her previous record of 4 steps by taking about 6 or 7! I anticipate her running around by Christmas! She definitely has more courage to let go of the furniture.

She loves dancing....especially to something with an awesome beat like Bob Marley.

She will help us dress her by holding out her arms for coats and shirts or putting her feet out for socks.

She loves playing peekaboo.

She has all her teeth (except for the 2 year molars) What a ride that was...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. See you next year!

There's not enough time in a day!!!!

Sorry, folks! There really aren't enough hours in a day!!!

I can't seem to finish my posts from our vacation, so I will end that string by saying it was a great vacay with the family. We all relaxed a bit and enjoyed the fact that there were many hands to play 'pass the peanut'.

A couple of weeks ago, our friends from Germany came to visit. What a fun playdate! E was having a lot of teething problems and was up at night a lot, but she's a trooper and still had fun showing J around the house.

 

After that, J's family came to visit and Pepere made the most awesome tickle trunk for Elizabeth. She loves it!!!!! 

 Elizabeth has really gotten into books. She'll actually sit still for a bit and look through the pages rather than nibbling the corners. She loves to turn pages to see what's on the next page!

Elizabeth is officially walking-assisted! A walker was found at Costco and boy does it ever do the job. She holds on and goes....in a straight line. She has yet to learn how to turn corners.

Elizabeth also started daycare a few weeks ago as I recently went back to work. A few months ago I really wasn't ready to head back into the real world, but the closer it got, the more ready I was to have my own life back. I love Elizabeth to bits, but being at home all the time was hard for me. I hate the fact that I now only have about 3 hours a day to spend with her and that most of that time is spent running around getting food ready and getting people dressed. However, it sure makes me appreciate the weekends even more. We've made it a point to start doing family things on the weekends. This weekend? Buy our first pumpkin!



Elizabeth's First Vacation: Fun Times Inside and Out

During our vacation, we didn't do much. We didn't go to PEI like I thought we would, we didn't go to the Moncton Zoo, and J and I didn't go see a movie. What we did do is just relax and hang out with family. J and I DID go out a few times after Elizabeth had gone to bed.....AND we went out to get ice cream while she was awake, leaving the Matantes in charge (complete with a full poopy diaper change!). You see, we are making progress.

Inside, the Olympics were playing on TV and Elizabeth loved looking at the commercials. Her favourite? RBC commercials with that little cartoon man. She'd laugh almost every time.

She also loved playing in the laundry basket, with her own remote that Pepere gave her, and speed crawling to the kitchen to see what huge things the grandparents brought back from Costco.

Elizabeth loved playing with the music table that we borrowed from J's cousins.

She was just learning to pull herself up and loved playing at the coffee table.

 

We also borrowed a little dino-scooter. Although she didn't know how to ride around on it, she loved being pushed by daddy.

 



Outside, we'd set up the sunshade and play when she got tired of the inside. Elizabeth also loved going on daily tours of the property, with stops such as "Pepere's Garden" and "Front-Porch Niles Household Viewing".

 Vacation Must #2: Relax. Check.



Elizabeth's First Vacation

It's hard being a baby. It's tiring. You're crawling places, using every muscle in your body. Your brain just won't stop learning. Everyone's trying to teach you something. Phew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it! Therefore, we decided to take Elizabeth on a vacation......and Memere and Pepere and Matante deserved a visit from the little one after not seeing her since Christmas.

We were hemming and hawing between driving there (and taking 2 days to do it so that she wasn't in a cramped carseat for 12 hours straight) and flying. Luckily, Porter had a 50% off sale and we got some great prices. It was settled, we would fly.

J and I were expecting the worst: that she would cry uncontrollably the whole way there. Well, Elizabeth threw us for a complete loop (and we should have known better because she's such a curious little gal) and was a total joy to have on the airplane. She made every around her smile and make silly faces at her. She kept herself busy and definitely took my mind off my fear of flying. Two thumbs up for airtravel.

One of the first things we did (and honestly, we didn't do much on the vacation) was take her to see the ocean. J's parents live close enough to the coast that you can see the water from their house, and you can even see Price Edward Island on a clear day. It's not a sandy coast, but a rocky one, so she didn't get to dip her toes in the water. However, she saw how much water there was.

We took rue Niles to get there (yep, a street names after J's family).

When she saw the water and heard the waves crashing, she smiled. We have a sound machine that we use when she sleeps and maybe it reminded her of that, but we'll just assume that she loved the view.

This was the view. Isn't it lovely? Sigh.

What a big bath tub! That's the pier on the right.

Family photo!

Vacation must 1: See the ocean.

Check.

8 months old

Elizabeth is 8 months old. Holy cow! It's just occured to me that I have a little over 3 months left of maternity leave. Ack! Time to make the most of my time off!!!!!

To date, she has reached several milestones:

1. She has 6 teeth.

2. She is mobile! It may be a soldier crawl, but she as fast as a...well...regular crawling baby.

3. She's loving her food. Her favourite? Laughing Cow cheese.

4. She had her first dip in a pool a few weeks back. She loved it.

5. She's pulling herself up to stand....but not yet furniture surfing.

We had our first extended stay away from home by travelling to the cottage to spend time with my family. We were expecting the worst...her not sleeping and us not having any time to relax. We were pleasantly surprised how well she got along with everyone. She napped well, her nights were no different than at home....it was a great weekend.

Next up for us? Our two week trip to New Brunswick to visit Dad's family...I can't wait to show her the maritimes! I hope she loves the ocean as much as I do.

Scooting baby = clean floors

We had our neighbours over for a BBQ on Friday. It's great when we invite people over because we do a thorough cleaning of the house. We were also away over the weekend, so this cleanliness has lasted a good several days! Now, I'm not a clean freak, but we have to keep the floors super clean. "But why??" you ask?? Because Elizabeth started to scoot around a few weeks ago!

A week and a half ago, on the day before she turned 7 months old, my parents came over to visit and on a whim my mom just put her down on the floor on her front and placed her mobile phone in front of her. Ellie quick started wriggling and pulled herself along with her arms and eventually reached the phone! We were all amazed!!!

Already the day after that she was more coordinated and now, a week and a half later, she's using her feet to push and her arms to pull. It may take a while to get her on her hands and knees, and actually it may never happen, but atleast she's mobile! I can tell she's much happier that she doesn't need to rely on me to carry her everywhere. It's a full body workout (I will forever maintain that she learned to scoot because all the times I was lying beside her showing her how to do it) so she gets tired quickly, but some days she lasts a good 20 minutes just scooting here to there and back again.

This weekend we will put up a few gates so that she doesn't get to the stairs. At first I wasn't concerned, but she's moving so fast now that I go brush my teeth and when I get back she's across the room (not to worry though, I'm always taking a peek to see where she is).

The time is flying by so fast and her development keeps amazing me. Babies! Wow!

My free time is dwindling now that Elizabeth is down to two naps. The house also needs to stay clean (for my own happiness) and one nap is usually spent tidying up and watering our little vegetable garden in the back yard and the second nap is spent doing something for me (whatever that may be depends on the day). Therefore, quick posts. My apologies.

This week, Ellie got her first cold. We were patting ourselves on the back that her teething was finally, for the moment, over. She has four new top teeth! Although they aren't out all the way, she's already using them to chew on the hair of her doll, Susie Q. Susie Q already has a bald spot....

Because of the teething, she started making this face where she scrunches up her nose and breathes heavily in and out, in and out. We think she's stretching her gums to relieve some of the pain. You try making the face....that's what it does! It makes her look like she doesn't like peas, but she loves them!



In fact, she's now eating: apple, zucchini, peas, green beans, corn, egg yolk, cheese, yogurt, beef and veg mix, chicken and veg mix, turkey and veg mix, and rice husk mum mums. Depending on the day, she'll love something or hate something. She also loves to explore the food on her own. For instance, because of her cold, yesterday she didn't feel like having dinner so I plopped her peas on the highchair tray and she painted me a picture. The next pic is another time with corn and rice krispies, but you get the idea. There were peas EVERYWHERE.

When she's not sick or teething, she's a good little eater and most of it actually gets into her belly.