A Visit from an Illini

Our friend Megan flew in last Thursday for a visit.  We had some cold weather most days, but still a great time.  Annabel enjoyed having a play partner and more action around the house, especially with someone who shares a birthday! 

She carried this yellow cup around for a couple hours.  It was her go-to toy that weekend.

We were able to meet Eric at work for lunch, took a short walk along the river near the weir and a drive around the city, walked and shopped along Broadway Ave, played Blokus and Beezer Wizzer, and ate a lot!  When the weather is cold, might as well enjoy some flat bread pizzas with lots of fun toppings....Hawaiian, meat-lovers and the best dessert pizza of pears, goat cheese, and honey!  When I bought some Canadian bacon for the Hawaiian pizza, Megan was amused that the package just said 'ham'.  We also made a waffle egg bake and some adult mac and cheese from our findings at the Bulk Cheese store on our shopping outing.  We enjoyed a few Original 16 beers, red shiraz, Chapman's chocolate ice cream, Easter M & M's, and Cadbury mini eggs.  I think we are still trying to detox.

It was fun to watch the basketball tourney on tv, where unfortunately Wisconsin lost, Illinois won, and then later Illinois lost their second game.  Megan brought Annabel an adorable outfit to cheer on the Illini.

The best part of our time living in Illinois was the great friends we made.  We are so lucky to have a wonderful friend like Megan.  Thanks for visiting us in the frozen tundra!

Enough is Enough!

I'm usually not one to complain about weather.  I enjoy the change of seasons and the different activities, colors, holidays, foods, and feelings each one brings.  We live in Saskatchewan, where the weather is obviously cold a lot of the time, but today was just awful!!  The wind was unbearable.  And the forecast is offering no promising news.  We went out for one errand today, gave up and came back home. 

Happy first day of spring!!

Shoveling has turned into an extreme sport because not only do we have to shovel, but then we have to chuck it 5 feet in the air!!

Backyard

On the upside, we have a friend coming to visit tomorrow!!  We thought March would be a great time for her visit, as it was quite nice weather here last year at this time.  I told her she should have demanded a flight discount for being the only person in the world traveling to Saskatoon for spring break!!  She must really like us.  :)

9 Months!

This 9 month age is just fun, fun, fun!  We are very, very blessed to have such a happy and healthy girl.  She's piecing together a lot of sounds, communicating her needs more with sounds and reaching, handing us toys, giving kisses on demand, dancing with her torso, laughing at everything, clapping, banging toys together, drumming, and waving goodbye.  Now that she has learned to clap, she is extra interested in her hands.  She claps, then opens and shuts her hands, checking them out intently. 

She gets so, SO excited when Eric comes home from work.  She sees him, punches both arms out in front, turns her head in multiple directions, gives a little shake, kicks her legs.....he has never received such a greeting in all his life!

She loves books.  She will sit and listen to many, many books (granted they only take a minute to read each one) and grabs the ones she would like to hear.  She is enjoying Where's Baby's Belly Button, Blue Hat, Green Hat (the oops! gets her every time), and loves Panda Bear, Panda Bear.  I think she likes the last book because it is big and interactive.  She always touches the big blue sea lion and this week she started sliding over the parts of the book to show which animal will be on the next page.  It is pretty cool to watch her start to do something after she has just been watching us for a few weeks.  Just soaking everything up. 

Leaving her legs in frog position, she is pulling her body across the room with her arms.  She can get up on all fours on our bed, but has not shown the crawling patterning yet.  She can get from sitting to her stomach and vise versa very fluently, even in the bathtub!  She also enjoys rolling to her stomach during her bath.  I have figured out that post-bath, she prefers to sit between my legs on the bed to get dried off and dressed vs. laying down on the bed.  We are seeing much less tears this way.  It was trial and error, but I guess she must feel more secure or warm this way.  Who knows! 

Sleeping is about the same this month, with a bit more consistent nine o'clock bedtime.  She often wakes at exactly three hours during the night, although we have had some 4.5-5 hour stretches.  I know the three hour waking must be a cycle and then she is unable to soothe herself back to sleep.  Often, she is quickly nursed back to sleep within 15 min.  I know it's a habit and not the most recommended thing to do, but we live on a main floor of a house with a woman downstairs who wakes every time Annabel wakes (I know this because I hear her....and because she told me).  There is no option of soothing her by rocking and laying her back in her crib if there is any crying involved.  Occasionally Eric or I can just rock her a bit and lay her back down, but often in the night she will arch her back and hint her interest in nursing and it's all over.  And, I'm tired in the middle of the night and standing and rocking her is exhausting.  Again, this is something I try not to get too worked up about because sleep seems to change often and I remind myself that she is only this young once.  But, I do hope it doesn't lead to longer term sleep problems or bad habits!  Just this week she has had a few more 2 hour naps, so it will be excellent if that continues.

Eating is going great!  She loves feeding herself and is able to pick up tiny pieces of food now, even if they are slippery.  I fill the spoon for her and set it on her tray and she'll pick up the spoon when she wants it....I like that it gives her independence to choose what she wants to eat.  We are still avoiding oatmeal, so barley cereal (often with cinnamon added) has been her main fortified grain.  It is quite good....and smells like brewers mash!  Eric said he wouldn't mind a bowl.  It is hard to come by, but I have found my source.  I still am not able to hand her anything large, such as a stick of a soft veggie, as she just tries to stuff the entire thing in her mouth, so small pieces for now.  

We met Eric for lunch at work.  The building next door has a dinosaur exhibit, reptiles, fish, and birds.

If Eric and I eat early enough and eat something we would like Annabel to have, we are starting to give her what we eat: lasagna, pastas, chicken (with a little apple sauce so it's not too dry), salmon, sweet potato, butter beans, yogurt, fruit, egg yolk scramble.  She has been enjoying diced nectarines, plums, grapes, blueberries, avocado, banana, green beans, carrots, zucchini, broccoli, and shredded cheese.  Plain rice cakes, broken up, and spread with a thin layer of cream cheese or apples sauce has been great too.  Cheerios, Baby Mum Mums, and Gerber Puffs have been her on -the-go, non-messy snacks. Yogurt has been a challenge to find a plain, full-fat variety.  A lot of the 2% yogurts and Greek yogurts have a ton of sugar in them (20 g/half cup).  And, some of the yogurt that is geared towards babies....by writing the word 'baby' on them.....is the worst!  It's quite sad marketing, really.  I finally found a 9% Greek yogurt with only 2 g. sugar for 3/4 cup.

First time "getting into something."

Now, off to get the house baby-proofed because we are definitely running out of time.

Please feel free to comment with ideas/tips regarding baby-proofing, foods, etc.  Remember, first-timers here!