A visit with old friends

This past weekend, Paul, Claire and I visited our friends Kelley and Paul. (As you can imagine, the two men being named Paul is confusing at times!) We also lucked out with a visit from our friend Daria, who is in the process of moving from B.C. to Milwaukee. She and her little girl Addison made a special trip out to see all of us.

Kelley and Paul made this a super-easy trip for us. They borrowed a highchair, playpen, carseat and stroller so that Claire would be comfy and we could travel easily. I'm sure it was a lot of trouble for them but of course, they said it was no problem at all. Thanks Kelley and Paul!

Although our visit was a short one, there were so many highlights:

• Claire's instant smile each time Kelley asked if she'd like to dance;
• Claire and Addison, only months apart in age, playing alongside each other (especially because Addison's mommy and I have known each other since we were five, only four years older than our girls!);
• Claire sitting on Kelley's countertop "cooking" with us;
• Walking down memory lane on Facebook and having a good laugh about the old days;
• The two Pauls cooking amazing ribs and chicken for us, wearing funny aprons (pics of which are not appropriate to post here!);
• Playing "Ring around the Rosie" and our own version of "duck duck goose", and singing the Mini Wheat song with Claire (complete with arm-flapping);
• Laughing about the late-night injury Claire's daddy suffered while out walking the dog with Paul;
• Kelley's Paul playing the harmonica and their dog Kino singing (howling) along; and
• Claire's giggle fits on the flight home as we pretended my hair was a mustache for both her and I.

This trip reminded me yet again that conversation with old friends, no matter how much time has passed, is as easy and natural as if no time has passed at all since the last visit. Now that I'm a parent, I also love that our friends, both old and new, love Claire to bits. They love spending time with her as much as we do, and I'm grateful for their influences in her life.

Daria and Addison, Kelley and Claire

Paul playing the harmonica while Kino sings along.

New friends!

A letter of apology to Claire regarding a bad haircut

Dear Claire,

Let me begin this letter by saying I think you are undeniably beautiful. Stunningly beautiful. Nothing can mar your beauty; you could wear a paper bag dress without combing your hair in the morning and still look gorgeous.

With these assurances out of the way, I can now move on to the matter at hand: the bang trim you received today. While your short, awkwardly straight bangs do not take away from your beauty, they are not up to your natural beauty standards. For this I apologize deeply. I also regret that I was lazy; I should have booked an appointment with my stylist downtown like last time. That convenient place in the mall today just looked so promising!

I know bad haircuts are inevitable in life but I was hoping we could put that pain off for at least a few years. Now that we've taken the plunge, though, perhaps it won't hurt so much (for me, that is; you don't seem to notice) the next time. Again, I'm sorry.

Love Mom

See? Still beautiful! (But I really am sorry about those bangs!)

With a barrette, things are much better!

This is the life!

We're having fall-like weather this week but at least today we had some beautiful sunshine. Although I feared a windy chill, Claire and I ventured outside for most of the afternoon. I enjoy every moment with Claire but some moments are pure magic. I can't explain why but this afternoon was like that. I guess it was just the right combination of opportunity, weather and the wonder of a child.

It's a jungle out there!

This year, our garden is a little overgrown with weeds, and I have to admit, I've already killed off all the annuals in our pots. Paul and I both love to garden, so what's up?

Claire-bear, that's what. For a couple of reasons. Reason # 1: Until just recently, she was putting everything in her mouth. Rocks, yep. Bark mulch, yep. I've been reluctant to take my eyes off her to pull even a few weeds. Pretty much gave me a heart-attack (did I mention I have a huge choking fear?) whenever I tried to get something done outside. And I usually spend her nap time showering, doing dishes, cleaning the house or blogging / keeping up with email; not much time for gardening there! Reason #2: Who wants to pick weeds when you can play outside with a cutie like Claire?

Anyway, Claire now seems past the stage of putting everything in her mouth. Yay! As a result, I finally had a chance to get some work done outside this week. Unfortunately, my time was pretty much spent on pulling the dead plants from our pots and putting the pots away. Oh well, there's always next summer!



Helping Mama with weeding.


















Claire's not sure what to think about our jungle-like amaranthus.










You may notice I didn't take any wide shots of our yard - just close-ups of Claire around certain flowers. That's my strategy to remember only the good parts of the yard this year!

New portrait

For our six-month anniversary with Claire, we had new professional photos taken of her. As you can probably tell from my posts, I'm fascinated by the changes in her (actually, in all children this age) so I have to post the best of the latest photo session along with the one taken in China on February 11. Look at all her hair now! (And she's already had a couple of cuts!)

Where's Claire?

For months, Claire has enjoyed playing peekaboo, covering herself up with a blanket or peeking out from a corner. Her latest version of the game goes as follows:



Oh no! Where's Claire?!

There she is!

Half a year!

It's unbelievable to us that we received Claire six months ago, on February 5. Yet, when we look at her, we can see how much she has changed. And I guess we have changed as well, although in less obvious ways. We're now pros at making bottles and changing diapers, reading books in silly voices and chopping food into tiny, choke-proof pieces. We've also been enriched by a child's perspective on the world; experiencing the world through her eyes, as much of a cliche it is, is truly incredible.

I'm sure all parents, especially our travel-mates, can relate! Happy anniversary to our travel-mates and their beautiful Xinyu girls!

Then ...

And now.

An evening with Ava and her parents

We had a wonderful evening last night at James and Beth's house. Part of our plan for the evening was to photograph our two girls together wearing their identical dresses and shoes (we happened to discover they had the same outfit by looking at each other's blogs.)

Our original plan was to take lovely pictures of them in front of a hedge but being little girls, they weren't happy to stand and pose. The alternative, to let them play and have fun, was much better! The first pic shows Ava playing peekaboo with Claire from the top of her playcentre.

I have no idea what they were thinking in the following two pictures but it could have been along the lines of the following:

Ava: Hey, we're wearing the same dress! How wierd is that?!

Claire: Are you sure? (Looking skeptical)

Ava: Yeah! Look, they're the same colour and they even have the same little ribbons and bows!

Claire: Hmmm. Maybe you're right!

It was only when I got home and looked through the photos that I realized I neglected to take any photos of Beth and James! (I had intended to take their photo!) Oh well, we'll have to do that next time when Helena is home as well.

Thanks again for a wonderful evening, Beth and James!

Our watermelon baby

I've always loved all things watermelon: the actual fruit, outdoor placemats, napkins, fun little home decore items, etc. Imagine my excitement when I saw this dress at Winners! I knew immediately that I had to have it for Claire (despite my self-imposed "no more shopping for baby clothes" rule). That very same day, I found matching socks at the Gap.

I think my shopoholic ways date back to when we were in China with clothes that were all too big for Claire. I felt so sad that everything I had brought was so huge on her that when we got home and I needed to stock up on size 3-6 months clothing, I REALLY stocked up. And then spring / summer came and of course she needed more clothing for the warmer season. But now, I really am done. Truly. I think ...

I love the back view of her little dress too!

"These are a few of my favourite things ..."

From day one, Claire has really loved her stuffed animals. They are scattered throughout the house, and seem to move on a daily, if not hourly, basis. She carries them around, hugs them, kisses them and when she's teething, bites their noses quite ferociously. I decided to gather them all in one spot for a photo; I had to deliberately set out to do this because as I mentioned, they are usually all throughout the house. Kitsya joined in for this pic.

Lately, Claire is also interested in her babies. She feeds her Chinese Cabbage Patch Kid newborn with its little bottle and even makes feeding sound-effects, much to our surprise.

Back in April, we received a little push / riding car from friends. It's been a big favourite of Claire's ever since. Before she could walk on her own, she spent literally hours walking back and forth holding on to that car. She also loves crazy rides on it from her daddy, with wild manouvers that include wheelies and donuts. When we first received the car, Claire's feet didn't touch the ground on either side. As you'll see in the photo I've posted, she now reaches the ground! I have video of her on the car in the early days but not a photo; otherwise, I'd post an old and a new photo side by side for comparison.


Another big fave is Claire's musical chair from Uncle Randy, Auntie Cindy and their kids. She loves its little songs and I think she looks really cute sitting on the chair. (ps - for anyone with eagle-eyes, you may notice in this pic that Claire's hair looks like it is dyed. I have no idea why it shows up two-tone like this but I can assure you, I didn't dye my 15-month old baby's hair!)

Picnic with Yulin

Yulin, the coordinator of our trip to China, was in town for a picnic today. We had a happy reunion with her (albeit a brief one - everyone wanted to talk with her!), and enjoyed visiting with others who have used FOI for their trip. We know several families through a bi-weekly playgroup we belong to, but it's rare to have all parents together so it was good to catch up with everyone.

Here's Paul, Claire and I with Yulin

Claire's latest funny face. I think it's related to teething.

I guess sitting on your watermelon container is one way to get around sharing!

If you're petite, you can go anywhere!

My mom likes to tell the story of how my sister walked at 8 1/2 months and how she was able, due to her age-related size, to walk right underneath the table. Well, Claire must take after her Auntie Stephanie because she does the same thing. Repeatedly. With all tables and desks that we have met. Here she is with (or should I say "under"?) some of her favourites.

Wild and crazy times with Auntie Kelley

I've been absent from the blogging world for a few days because my friend Kelley came for a visit. We shopped a lot and had a great time hanging out with Claire.

I find it interesting to see how different people interact / play with kids. Kelley loves to dance so she and Claire had many dance parties. Sometimes they'd polka around the house, sometimes they'd do some more modern dance moves and other times, well, Kelley demonstrated a few somewhat questionable dance moves. At one point, she said it was like KinderMusik with Kelley. I thought perhaps it was more like KinderMusik Gone Awry, but what the heck. They had a blast, and I know as Claire grows up, she'll have many more fun dance parties with her Auntie Kelley.

Another memorable moment from the weekend was when Claire decided to use her corn on the cob as a phone. When she put the corn down for a moment, Kelley made a ringing sound. Claire then picked up the cob again, held it to her ear and made a face as if she anticipated someone saying hello on the other end. She kept up the routine for some time, while we all had a good laugh. With a toddler around, it seems like we spend most of our days laughing.

Thanks again for a wonderful visit Kelley!

Sunbonnet Sue

Most of the time, I think of Claire as a toddler now. But every now and then, I bring out her bonnet and she transforms back into a baby. What's sweeter than a baby (or toddler) in a bonnet?

My day

Claire here. Mama is not hovering over me for once so I'm finally getting a chance to write on my blog. Since some of my friends' moms have shared what a typical day is like for them, I thought I'd do the same about me.

I usually sleep until about 8:30. I always hear Mama tell people how great that is, 'cause she's a "big sleeper" too. Sometimes I sleep in until 9:30 or so, but that last hour of sleep isn't always so great: often Mama tries to wake me up but I do my best to ignore her.

About a week ago, Mama finally started to feed me more food other than formula. That means that my first meal of the day now consists of toast, yogurt, eggs, tomatoes, fruit and one of my favourites, grilled cheese sandwiches (not all at the same time, of course!). Before that, my first meal would be a bottle but now I usually get one when I'm all done with the good stuff. I tell Mama I'm done by holding up my hands and saying, "All dee".

After we eat and get cleaned up, I play for a couple of hours, either in the house, outside in the yard or at a nearby playground. For lunch, I eat whatever Mama eats. I really like meat and potatoes, especially Grandma's porcupine meatballs. Corn is another big favourite of mine! I also like peas, carrots and broccoli: basically anything that is colourful except for sweet potatoes.

I usually get another bottle (or the remainder of my breakfast bottle) after lunch. I then nap for about an hour and a half to two hours.

After I wake up, we play some more or else we go somewhere in the car where I get to listen to Johnny Cash and June Carter. They sure are funny! Sometimes we go to the grocery store and sometimes we go to the mall where Mama loves to go into every single kids' clothing store. You'd think she'd get bored like me, but nope. I show my boredom by slouching down real low and putting my legs up on the rail-thingy on my stroller. Sometimes we go to the zoo or Fort Edmonton Park where I get to see all sorts of cool things. And sometimes we go visit friends, which I really like because the attention is all on yours truly!

When Daddy is supposed to come home, we wait upstairs for him because he can't wait to see me at the door. I put on a big show for him. I pretend that I'm a bird and flap, flap, flap my arms like crazy.

For dinner, I eat whatever Mama and Daddy are having although sometimes Mama has this funny rabbit-food (that's what she calls it anyway) which she doesn't share with me. How rude. I don't care for rice or noodles much. After dinner, we hang out and play. I really like the evenings because Daddy is home to play with me. He's so funny that he makes me giggle and giggle.

I usually get tucked in for sleep around 9:30. I like to wake up an hour or two later just to keep Mama on her toes. She then brings me to bed where I like to eventually work my way into sleeping sideways between Mama and Daddy until they barely have any room left. I think Daddy will be the first one to fall off the bed but who knows?!

Throughout the day, I get fed a lot: pretty much whenever I do the special sign for eat. Snacks usually consist of cheese, yogurt, fruit, crackers, bread or ice cream.

I say lots and lots of words but for some reason, Mama and Daddy only recognize these ones: Mama, Daddy, kitty, puppy, baby, up, pretty, hat, hot, all done, all gone, uh oh, hi, bye, bib, book , there and cookie. I say many of those words just like Mama and Daddy, but some I pronounce in a more evolved way. I sign "eat" a lot and sometimes "more", "please" and "thank you" when I feel like it.

I have nine teeth and am cutting my tenth right now. I now weigh 15 lbs and 12 oz and am 27 1/2 inches. I'm very petite and cute, if I do say so myself!

I tried to take a picture of myself but I guess my arm is not long enough because I ended up with a close-up of my nose. In lieu of new pictures, I'm posting some old ones taken of me in China on February 11 (five months ago tomorrow!).

She starts out with gusto, and then ...

We've finally been given the greenlight from the dietician to feed Claire more solids after months of having to feed her primarily formula and fortified cereal (not that I managed to get much of the latter into her), solids second. Here are some pics from our meal tonight.

Claire adores corn on the cob but really has to attack it to get any kernals. (To my friend Shea who just posted pics of Caia eating corn, I'm sorry to be a copycat! I just couldn't resist!)





Claire loved Paul's latest rib recipe but felt a little hard-done by, I think, because we gave her a rib that was pretty much picked clean. (She had small pieces of meat to pick off her plate instead.)

Moments later, Claire nearly collapsed from exhaustion. This eating is fun but a lot of work!

Splash pool pals

To stay cool on a 30-plus degree day, Beth and I decided to meet at the legislature splash pools with the kids. We had a gorgeous morning together, complete with splashing, walking, lounging and snacking.

Ava was the intrepid explorer as always (although she never ceases to amaze me with her fearlessness). Claire wasn't as sure about the splash pool as the last time I took her; she barely wanted to move once I got her standing in the pool. That said, she seemed to enjoy standing while hitting the water with her hands.

Ava is a nurturing soul! Here she is feeding Claire.

Claire with Helena, Ava's big sister. Helena travelled with us in China and we all think she is the best big sister ever!

Happy Birthday, Canada!

July 1 was a very important day for Claire: not only did she get baptized but she got to celebrate her first Canada Day! Happy Canada Day to all the other babies experiencing their first Canada Day as well!

Above left: Claire's not sure what to think about my cake-decorating efforts.

Above right: Paul's mom and dad enjoyed walking through the park holding on to Claire's hands.