More swimming pictures

Rachel really enjoyed her swimming lesson tonight. It has been 2 weeks since we've been because of the March Break and then Rachel was sick last week. She didn't mind the life jacket being on and was doing really well floating around.

I'm not sure what Ron is doing in that picture.
Kicking her legs
Floating & being nosy - what a perfect world!
Blowing bubbles with Daddy. She watched Ron do it a few times and then she actually did it herself. Too cute!

Bananas & watching Daddy

I gave Rachel a banana for the first time today. She's had them before but not in the 'real' form. As soon as I gave her the piece today, she put it in her mouth and took a little piece off. She wasn't sure about it at first but as time went on, she quite enjoyed it...


She thought the word 'banana' was quite funny. When I would say it, she would start to giggle. So easily amused (like her mother). :)

It ended up being such a beautiful afternoon - once the storm rolled through. I was supposed to make ham & cheesy potatoes but I thought we should have a bbq instead. I mean, it was 23 degrees out - as if I'm going to turn the oven on! Rachel got a kick out of watching Ron while he was bbq'ing.

Flippin' the bird! What a bad girl - I wonder who taught her that?

Here she is watching Ron - she stood there the whole time he was out there. He said she was smiling away. Our windows are the perfect height for her to stand at. She is doing really well with standing while holding on to something. We play a little game at night where she stands on the couch beside me (I'm not standing on the couch - ha ha) and Ron is on the other side of the couch and he plays HIS version of 'Peek-a-boo'. She gets so excited - her legs are moving all over the place - moving up & down - and she does well with that. I know in a few months she'll be even more mobile - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

What a fun weekend!

On Friday night, we went over to our friends John & Ann's for "pizza night". It was great to catch up with everyone because we haven't seen them since the Superbowl party. Rachel was a good little munchkin and of course, she entertained everyone. It wasn't a late night - we were home around 10 and Rachel slept through the night! WOO HOO!

I was chatting with Wyatt on Friday night (he's a fireman) and I was asking if & when the fire department inspects car seats. He said they do it every Saturday & Sunday and he hooked us up with an appointment at 1:30 on Saturday. So that morning we got everything ready & installed the 'big girl' car seat in my car. I'm sad that she has outgrown the infant carrier but on the other hand, I think my arms & shoulder agree it was time to move her into the other car seat! ha ha Anyway, we took a picture of Rachel in the car seat before Ron installed it. This time, she was ok with it (we sat her in it when we bought it awhile ago) and was busy checking everything out.

The firemen were great - they went over everything with us about the safety of these types of car seats and what we should watch out for, etc. They tightened it up for us and of course, Rachel just gawked the whole time! Mind you, I was pretty excited, too - but not because of the cute firemen or the fact that my little girl is growing up. No...I was excited because my little car, Ruby the Red Rocket, was INSIDE the fire hall! ha ha I know...I know...it doesn't take much to get me excited but do you know how cute Ruby looked in there beside the big fire truck? I can't wait to go back in August when we flip the car seat around to face the front - I'll be taking my camera with me!! :)

We made the trip to Toronto today with my parents to see Rybeca & Tim's baby, Aidan. Oh my goodness, he is just the cutest thing. He's 2 weeks old now and wearing 6m clothing. Yes, that's right - he's a big boy - both in height & weight (in the 90th percentile for both). Here are some pictures from our visit today...

Aidan getting ready to kiss me! ha ha ha ha
As you can see from this picture, Rachel wasn't too sure about Aidan at first.

It didn't take her long to warm up to him (her arm is around him - too cute). Also in the picture - my Mom & Rybeca's Mom.

Rachel asking Aidan "Hey - do you want to hold my hand?"
Aidan agreed to hold Rachel's hand but he appears to be quite bored!
How cute - the two of them holding hands/arms. Rachel looks like a giant beside him! ha ha

We had a good trip down - Rachel slept the majority of the way but on the way home she would not sleep. When we were about 20 minutes from home she decided to have a little hissy fit - she's never done this in the car before - so needless to say it was an interesting ride! Her cheeks were rosy today so maybe she's teething again? I don't know. She's been sleeping ever since we got home though - and that was 2 hours ago. I'm sure she'll be waking up soon though.

I'm sad that another weekend is over but there are still many more left. I think our weekends are going to be busier now that the nice weather is here though...but that's ok. That's what it's all about, right?

I guess I should go wake Ron up - he's asleep on the couch. Nascar always does that to him! ha ha

Many pictures...

We gave Rachel celery for the first time on Wednesday night. Obviously she's not 'eating' it but she did enjoy sucking on and trying to bite it. She probably thought it was just a fancy toy with flavour! ha ha



Yesterday was a busy day. Rachel & I met up with Sally & Nellie and did some shopping at Costco. Rachel had a blast - she was so excited to sit in the cart instead of in her car seat! Thankfully she still likes her car seat but the cart was something new & exciting!

Yes, her hair was in a little pony tail for our big adventure yesterday :)
She had a bit of a mohawk after we took the elastic out :)

I bought her a baseball hat yesterday so Ron was playing around with it last night. Thankfully Rachel doesn't mind hats...yet! I'm sure that will change by the time the summer rolls around!

I am happy to report that Rachel is back to sleeping through the night completely. That's right - I don't have to get up with her at all - not even to give her the soother. WOO HOO! Let's hope this trend continues!

She was a bit of a challenge last night when I put her to bed - she wasn't quite ready. She wanted to play. She had a busy day - first shopping and then I met up with a bunch of friends from work for dinner. Rachel was our entertainment - sitting in the highchair & flirting with the people behind us. As it turns out, I knew someone at the table - I actually grew up with him! Anyway, he was there with his wife & son (3 months old & adorable) and another couple. I spoke to Mark for a little bit - I haven't seen him since High School so it was definitely a little weird. He hasn't changed at all though - he still looks the same.

It was a busy day yesterday but a lot of fun. We have another busy day lined up today! We are going shopping with Grandma this afternoon & then over to our friends house for pizza night! We were supposed to go to Windsor tomorrow to visit Ron's brother Dave & his girlfriend Andrea but they have been looking at houses and are really close to making an offer so her parents are going down there tonight to help out. We obviously don't want to get in the way of that - buying your first house is so much fun & such a big step! So that means we get to go see Aidan tonight - Rybeca & Tim's little guy. Ok, he's not so little...he was the size of Rachel at 2 months old when he was born! ha ha

This is getting far too long of a post now...it was supposed to be just pictures & a quick note!

Have a great weekend!

"Mama"

Rachel has been saying 'mom mom mom mom mom' for quite awhile now but of course as soon as we get the video camera out, she won't say ANYTHING! Just over the past few days she has started to just say 'mama' and it's so adorable! I tried to capture it on video this morning but of course she didn't want to cooperate like she was BEFORE the camera came out. Anyway, I apologize for the crappy quality of the video - this was recorded around 7:30 - just after Rachel woke up.



And here's Rachel saying her first word...Hello...back in November when she was 12 weeks old. Remember - you have to tilt your head to view this video because I couldn't figure out how to flip the view at the time. I've come a long way....I really have! ha ha

Oh what a weekend!

Let's start off with these cute little 'knee pads' for when Rachel starts crawling. Thanks to "Great Grandma Betty" for these...I can't wait to use them! I put them on Rachel the other day just to see what they were like - she had this expression like 'what the hell are those & why are they on me?' ha ha

Rachel hasn't been using her play mat for quite awhile now but she has always liked the one little toy. Over the past few weeks she has started keeping the one part in her mouth and having the rest of the toy just hang there (usually she's in her exersaucer when she's playing with this). I finally captured a picture of it when she was playing on the floor yesterday...
After her bath last night, I decided it would be fun to play with her hair. Rachel didn't seem to mind the little pony tail at the front of her head...she was more excited about her feet & her towel. How fun to chew on your feet and then cover them up? ha ha
Here's another shot of her little pony tail. I think she looks more like a girl when her hair is up.
*sigh* I don't even know where to begin with the past couple of nights around here. Rachel is a sick little munchkin. She has managed to get a cold and the poor little thing is so stuffed up. We noticed her coughing a lot more yesterday but usually she does her 'fake' cough to get our attention. Not so much the case this time around...she really did have a cough. For the past two nights, we would put her to bed in her crib and then about an hour later she would wake up screaming. We didn't know what was wrong with her - we assumed it was a teething issue - so we gave her some Motrin and she would settle down a bit...when we put her in her carseat. That's right - it's the ONLY place she was happy. Anywhere else and she was MISERABLE! So on Friday & Saturday night, Rachel slept in her carseat!
Yup - this is how Ron slept for two nights...
She seems to be feeling a bit better this afternoon. She was really sick this morning. We were just about ready to put her in the carseat to go to church when she threw up...everywhere. Thank goodness we got our couch & carpet scotch guarded! :) Anyway, she was very clingy after that episode (understandably so) until she went down for her morning nap. She woke up from that in a great mood, like usual. I think we got most of the phlegm out of her throat & nose so here's hoping she's on her way to recovery & will sleep in her crib tonight!

Rachel can wave!!!!

I'm so proud of myself for teaching Rachel this...

Jolly Jumpers...through the years

I had to giggle when I found these pictures of me & Ron in our jolly jumpers. My goodness, they have come a long way! : )

I wish we could have a regular one and not the one on the "A" frame but due to the fact our house is 'open concept' we don't have any door frames.

Enjoy the chuckle...

Ron in his jolly jumper...some time in 1972 (I'm not sure how old he is)

Me in my jolly jumper in 1974. I am 8 months old. Nice tan, eh?

Rachel just a few days ago in her jolly jumper. March 2007 - almost 7 months old.

7 months old

I'm very pleased with Rachel's pictures from this morning. She was in a great mood and we had lots of fun with the photographer, as usual. I'm glad we've had the same one for the majority of the time - she is so friendly and great with kids. It was VERY hard to choose the pictures today because there were so many good ones but these are the ones I finally decided on.




This profile picture is going to be in the studio as well. How cute :)




I'm still in awe that Rachel is 7 months old today. Time sure is flying by!

Rachel's new hat & a visit with Uncle David

I think Rachel is a hat girl. They look cute on her and she's quite content to have them on her head as well...for now :) I'm hoping she'll wear this tomorrow for her pictures we are having done in the morning.

Rachel decided to cuddle up with Uncle Dave. Not sure if it was really the beer bottle that grabbed her attention or David himself :)

A look back...

After seeing a couple of Elizabeth's wedding pictures, I finally got the push I needed to do this montage.

Make an on-line slideshow at onetruemedia.com

Thanks Elizabeth!!!!

My friend Elizabeth rocks!!!! There is this cool program out there that allows you to edit and play around with pictures. Well, it won't work on our computer...which I think might be a good thing considering the amount of time I could potentially spend on the computer if it did :) Anyway, Elizabeth did these pictures for us....they turned out great!!! THANKS ELIZABETH!!!

Sleepover success, being outside & a new challenge

Rachel was a good girl last night for Grandma & Grandad. She slept through the night! YAY!!!! Here's hoping she does the same for us because Thursday night was BRUTAL! I think I jinxed myself the other night! She went to bed at 7, got up at 9:40 just as I was heading to bed and didn't go back to sleep until after 1! She had a little nap and was ready to party. At first she was cuddling with me and I thought she would go back to sleep. Not so much the case. She got her second wind and was ready to go! Thankfully she slept until 8 the next morning though.

It was such a beautiful day today that when we got home we decided to get some fresh air. Rachel & I watched Daddy chip away at the ice at the end of our driveway. It was pretty thick in some parts but for the most part, it is all gone now.


Chatting with Daddy. I'm so glad Tim & Rybeca bought her that snowsuit - it has come in handy a few times this winter! Oh - and on a side note, Ry had their baby this evening just after 5. He weighed in at 9lbs 11oz (get this - Rachel weighed 9lbs 12oz at her 2 month check up! ha ha). I don't know any other details at this time - Ry's Dad was just too excited and my Mom apparently was as well because she forgot to ask his name! I knew when we saw Rybeca a month ago (at her shower) she was going to have a big baby - I can only imagine how big she got over the past month! Yikes!
You can see one of the houses on our street is for sale. It's the same model as ours and they are asking $329,900! That's insane!!! The people who live there moved to London from Mississauga so when they bought the house, they thought they were getting quite the deal...well, now they are trying to make some more money! It will be interesting to see how long it sits on the market especially since you can still build the same model, elsewhere in our subidision. I guess you wouldn't back on to the park though or even be on a cul-de-sac. Still, I think $329k is a lot for that house.
I hope tomorrow is another nice day so we can spend more time outside. Rachel seems to enjoy it outside. I'm sure our neighbours think we're nuts - Ron was chipping away at the ice and I was walking Rachel around the circle a few times! :)
This is Rachel's new thing. She loves to have things hanging out of her mouth. Usually the washcloth is the #1 thing hanging out of her mouth but she does have a couple of toys she does that with as well. What a little monkey!

As you can see, taking the weekly 'pig' picture is becoming more of a challenge now that Rachel is moving around so much. Oh - and she DID have socks on but she has figured out that when she's in her exersaucer she can pull them off very easily. Guess we'll have to go back to always having shoes or her Robeez on. She finally decided to cooperate for the weekly picture :)