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Leah has now had (and still has) her first major cold that has been enough to disrupt her night time sleep. It hasn’t been that bad though she has been a little more needy a few days so we skipped out on swimming and story time this week. On Wednesday, I was feeling a little cabin fever so we went grocery shopping instead of to the library. I would feel bad spreading her cold to her friends but I figure no one has reason to complain about a kid with a cold at the store. Leah loves sitting in the cart and watching all the action.

Speaking of action, someone has been providing a lot of it around here. What does this face tell you?

What do you do when you need your hands completely to yourself for five minutes to complete mixing your bread dough and can’t wait till nap time in order to have bread ready when daddy get home for lunch?

Alternately titled: Which one of these things doesn’t belong?

We went to the park to try out the baby swings on Thursday and had a lot of fun.

In case you are wondering, she is the pink blob in that last picture.

Leah has had some very short afternoon naps this week so sometimes it can be a struggle to keep her awake until eight o’clock. This keeps her awake and happy every time so the other night I jump in the bath with her and am enjoying the splashing and games she plays until she decides to do something she hasn’t done since day two of her life while still in the hospital. All of a sudden with no warning she decides she needs to do a number two while I am holding her in the tub.

I was suddenly faced with a dilemma, exactly what do you do when your kid poops in the tub with you? This is something not covered in baby books. In the hospital the nurse took care of it and promptly emptied the tub and filled it up with fresh, clean water. But this time I was at home. I said a quick, silent prayer of thanks that daddy was home and called out to him to bring a yogurt container to dispose of said deposits and to take Leah out so I could shower off.

Then I got to thinking, what would I have done on my own? I can’t leave her in the tub while I grab a container and there are no suitable containers near by. Draining the water does not help dispose of the mess and could make it nasty to clean up. What if she still had a bigger mess to make? I don’t think I would want to carry her anywhere. Maybe I should store an emergency old yogurt container in the bathroom for this purpose. Until then, I hope this is only a once in nine month occasion that she will grow out of by the time she is eighteen months.

So, I thought it might be a few more years till my child would mock me or demand the keys in exchange for happiness but apparently not. Today I was doing an aerobic video while Leah was hanging out in her exersaucer and she laughed for at least a minute straight at me. Better than crying I guess, but not by much. She is looking so grown up but at least the government dictates a few more years until she is allowed to borrow my car.

We have been up to a lot of mommy stuff lately and not much else. I feel like such a mom and I do have to admit, sometimes it is still a label I am getting used to. I take my child swimming and to story time at the library and have intriguing conversations about eating and sleeping habits of eight month olds. These conversations about the seeming mundane aspects of children that I have politely listened to over the years without totally comprehending I now partake in with interest.

I now understand why parents get annoyed when someone left their kid in the nursery with a runny nose… and then do it themselves a few weeks later desperate to get out of the house. I understand that working in a daycare is not in any way closely comparable to having your own child. I understand the stress of attempting to change nap or bed times. I understand the enormity of feeling responsible for every little thing in this little life that God has entrusted me with. I understand why a mom might meet dad in the garage before he even gets out of the car after a long day of work to pass off the baby.

It is a life like no other that I wouldn’t trade in for anything. Children grow up so fast right before our very eyes. It is so amazing to watch them learn, discover, laugh and explore. When people ask if motherhood is what I envisioned I don’t know how to answer. It is not what I envisioned though I have immense trouble in defining how it is different than what I thought. Parenthood is a journey like no other, unexplainable in so many ways; creating bonds with complete strangers, bringing immense joy and unforsakeable bonds. I am trying to enjoy every moment knowing they will pass so soon.

For now we are enjoying the swimming with excessive splashing…

…rub a dub dubbing…

… and being excessively tired after the workout.

My mom came over yesterday and I invited her to come with us to story time at the local library.  Leah was not her overly happy self but was okay with a little help from her soother.  We sang a lot of nursery rhymes that were around when I was a kid and I am sure were around when my mom was a kid too along with a few Raffi tunes for good measure.  My mom brought over a few goodies from the past that she came upon while doing a intense winter cleaning of every nook and cranny in her house.  Leah now is proud owner of OshKosh overalls (which I believe never go out of style for babies, though I probably could have skipped that fad in high school looking back at pictures), a sweater to grow into to that my Oma knit and a strawberry jacket that my mom sewed for me when I was young.

My mom hardly saved anything clothes wise, which is probably for the best but still has most of our toys.  When she got out some rattles for Leah, I totally remember them from I was little.  There were a few toys everyone my age seemed to have; a fisher price rotary telephone, a rainbow xylophone and a tupperware shape sorter (red and blue with yellow shapes to put into the ball).  I was pretty happy when Leah received a rotary phone just like I had when I was a kid, except that hers is pink.  I am not sure if she will ever know how to actually dial that phone, even if she has it till she’s ten as who has a phone like that anymore?  I love a trip down memory lane… so here is Leah wearing the same overalls I did (or my sister, my mom’s not totally sure) over twenty years later playing with her new phone.

For the record, Leah now weighs 17 lbs, 10 oz and is looking and feeling great!

We headed out with my family on Thursday morning to spend a few days skiing, snowboarding and having fun. Leah received lots of attention from everyone.

So much so, she had to look to every once in a while to see who was the current person holding her.

Morgan and I were able to spend some time skiing together while my mom babysat Leah. I was pretty rusty though got the hang of it by the second day. Morgan’s tips from his ski lesson helped out a lot.

Leah brushed up on her reading skills while we worked on our skiing.

The views were amazing, not only behind us but going up on the chair lift as well.

Uncle Chris thought he would like his niece to be a truly organic baby and try take out the plastic and metal in her life. Dipping a baby carrot in her baby food then feeding her is all fine and dandy if you have the time and patience for that sort of thing. That is, until she decides she wants to eat the carrot herself and give her uncle a scare.

Leah was definitely treated like a princess this past weekend. She looked the part very well too.

Leah was great during all the travel and with all the constant excitement. She loved sitting in her chair, eating cheerios and watch whatever was going on. We played lots of games which I love doing, though I do need to brush up on my Dutch Blitz skills.

There is an outdoor skating rink which I thought was pretty cool, though I have had kindergartners easily out-skate me before. I passed on this opportunity in order to do something a whole lot more fun (and less skillful as well as less embarrassing) the next night after putting Leah to bed.

We forgot our camera, but if you look in the background in the picture below, there is a hill which is for snow tubing. I wasn’t sure about how fun this would be. I thought it was a kid thing, which it is but totally not limited to children only. Morgan was excited from the get go and off we went. As we sat in our tubes being pulled up the mountain, I felt so posh watching the view feeling so catered to. That is, until half way through the ride up, I began to think about what system do they have in place to release you from the cable that pulls you up. Different contraptions entered my mind taking into account the need to release you but still contain you in a small area so you don’t go down the mountain and can move quickly out of the way for the next tuber.

The scariest part of the whole experience for me was when they pull you up a small, steep section at the very end of the cable and you go down a small slide backwards. I like seeing where I am going. I think it is a control thing. I am never one to go on a roller coaster, but go ahead do donuts with me on a tube behind a boat and I am fine. At least I still have a little bit of control and can always let go if needed. Not that you have a choice to jump off the tube in this situation but I still felt some control. Maybe I have a few issues I need to work on… anyways, we had a blast making going as a group down the hill.

The weather was gorgeous, the mountains beautiful, the company great, all in all a great weekend.

Leah is now crawling forward with purpose. She has been slithering backwards for awhile now and has been moving around the living room but now can actually see something a few feet away and go and get it. Unfortunately, these enticing objects are not always toys or kid friendly objects. This will keep me on my toes a lot more as our home will never be 100% kid friendly. I have tried to make it kid friendly as possible but there are some things that are not moving anywhere soon that we will endeavor to teach her not touch, such as our computers.

Though she has got her hands on a lot more things that I do not want her touching or sucking on lately, I have never heard a complaint when I took something away. That is, until this morning when I left my pen and notepad on the ground as I was packing for our trip. Even though I usually replace it with something she can have, there was still a distinct complaint. I have a hunch this complaint might escalate in the coming weeks and months… though only time will tell. Who am I kidding? What are the chances a young child will suddenly be okay with mom taking away a prized object?

Leah has been learning all sorts of new things in the past week. Along with crawling, Leah has been practicing her yoga moves lately in the crawling position with her not so little bottom straight up in the air. She has learned to open and close the flaps on the ‘lift the flap’ book that she got for Christmas. Leah is also eating pretty big chunks of soft food like cooked carrot. When we play peek-a-boo or other fun games, she really gets excited and anticipates the action. It is so cute. Yesterday night, I was counting to three and then giving her a big kiss on the cheek. Within a minute or two I just needed to start counting to get a huge giggle from her.

I wasn’t totally sure what my days would look like once I had a baby in my arms but we sure haven’t had time to worry about being bored. Mondays is Grandma day, Tuesday I go to a women’s group at church, Wednesday is story time at the library with Thursday and Friday totally open. We get together quite a bit with the mommy gang. Sometimes we meet with everyone and other times we just meet with a few of them for swimming or last minute activities. I think I might have gone crazy long ago if it were not for all the awesome moms and babes we hang out with. Here is Leah showing off all her four teeth at one of the recent get togethers.

I think she if getting another tooth as she has been biting the cuffs of her shirts lately and even gumming on her wrist till it was all red. She still has been sleeping well which Morgan and I are so grateful for.

We have decided that I will be looking after one of Leah’s friends in May for three days a week when her mom goes back to work. Though I am sure it will be busy, I am also excited about Leah having a playmate. It will be so neat to see them interact, grow and explore together.

And if I am talking about things I do not do, I certainly will not photograph them and put them on the world wide web for all to see.

Leah is never fussy when I try to get some work done in the kitchen and if she was I would not try to confine her more or just change the environment instead of devoting all my attention on her. But she loves playing in her bathtub, clothed or not, with or without water.

Leah does not use her soother except at bedtime. I do not give it to her just to buy a few more minutes of no crying and certainly not just to try get a half decent picture of her with her grandpa close to bedtime.

When we are in a hurry to go somewhere, I do not allow Leah to play with things that are not toys while I gather my jacket, shoes, purse and camera and her jacket and diaper bag and ensure everything is duly stocked in case of any emergency event (diaper malfunction, intense hunger, spit up, you moms know the type). Grandma’s lid off of her travel coffee mug tastes oh, so good… even if it is… or was clean.

Leah does not get her extremities wrapped it in her crib slats while sleeping and I certainly do not leave her like that in hopes of extending nap time a little longer.

I do not let Leah crawl wherever her heart desires as she may bump into something…. even if she had a fascination with being right under the middle of the table while all the chairs are tucked in.

I was not excited when I saw that Leah had figured out how to open the door to the TV cabinet and would never show her my excitement when it will be something to discourage her from in the very near future.

On Saturday while hanging out at Granville Island, I would never stand in the wet snow and rain longer than absolutely necessary with Leah and no umbrella to take a picture with a cool looking mixer for her grandpa.

Oh, and one last thing… I always dress Leah first thing when she wakes up in the morning. As you can see from the pictures above, we do not lounge around in the morning. Or for that matter, in the afternoon or evening.

Though we weren’t doing any big presents this year, I still wanted to do something special for all of Leah’s grandparent’s who absolutely adore her. On my parent’s side, instead of exchanging Christmas presents we are putting the money towards a ski trip at Big White which is coming up very fast. Actually, we did do a $5 dollar present exchange which I totally stressed over. Try finding a gift that will suit my dad and my sister in law and everyone else in between. It is tricky… so after thinking of a few things and then going to the store and not finding them we arrived with a not so great gift and my mom found some caramels for us as well. We did the ‘exchange’ through a dice game where when you rolled a six you were able to pick a gift. It was fun and one of the great presents was cake mix (which was brought by my brother and sister in law, wrapped very nicely and picked by my brother who forgot that it was a gift he brought and what was inside). I hope he made her a nice cake. Wow, that was a long rabbit trail. Next year I will try not stress so much… sorry Morgan.

Anyways, I still wanted to get everyone something because of how much they love Leah so I decided on a photo calendar. Sounds simple but a little more work than what it seemed. I was happy with the outcome though, especially after seeing them open the gift. So here it is, month by month.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

…is going to get her own room in the near future

…had her first Cheerio this week

…can meander her way around the living room pretty well without really crawling.

…looks positively cute in her pink feline suit with a tail on her bottom while flying into the car

…likes to play with her diapers (the clean ones of course)

…who has enough hair that it can actually look messy, especially after wearing a toque

…is the cutest baby in town

Leah, we love you!

After a fun New Year’s Eve in Langley, we arrived home at one in the morning only to get up at 8:30 for the Resolution Run in Cresent Park. Especially after the fresh snowfall, it was beautiful on the trail. It was an 8 kilometer run which was a lot more challenging in the snow and with it snowing a little during the run as well. I definitely wasn’t ready for an eight kilometer run so I graciously let Morgan run the first run of the trail series that we both signed up for. Morgan did well though I have no clue how fast he was.

Leah and I walked with a friend whose husband was running as well. We only walked one of the three laps that made up the run. That was enough for us. It was tiring walking in the snow in my big boots carrying Leah but so worth it. We did run the very last bit of our lap and I was cheering and a few people actually thought I finished the race way ahead of the pack while running with Leah. I thought that was pretty funny and explained that actually this was my first and only lap.

My friend took some great pictures of Leah while we were hanging out during and after the run.

Someone fell asleep half way through the run.

I felt like I was pregnant again…. except this time with a twenty pound baby.

And now for some valuable bonus points, which picture in this post was not taken by a professional. Okay, maybe she is not a pro but her pictures look like it.