Another busy weekend...

Friday morning proved to be another interesting morning for Rachel. She was on her hands & knees again at the other end of her crib. I'm assuming this will be a regular occurrence now :)

Rachel prefers to drink her bottle on her own now so we usually lay a pillow on the floor and she's good to go. On Friday morning, I laid her down on the pillow, gave her the bottle and then I went to the bathroom. I was probably gone for about 45 seconds or a minute at the most. When I walked back into the family room, there is where I found Rachel...

When I left the family room, her head was on that little pillow and she was quite content to drink her bottle. Crazy kid!

My friend Lora came to London on Friday for a visit (she lives in St. Catharine's) and Rachel was awesome with her. She didn't cry with Lora at all. Lora says it's because she brought Rachel a present! ha ha Anyway, the biggest surprise of the day was when Rachel sat on Lora's lap and cuddled with her. Rachel doesn't do this with anyone else...including me & Ron. The only time she will cuddle with us is if we're in the rocking chair in her room.

Anyway, I'm glad Rachel was so comfortable with Lora. Rach & I are going to go see Lora & her two kids (Owen & Ashley) in a couple of weeks before Lora goes back to work.

Ron & I went to Windsor on Saturday for the day to help David & Andrea paint their master bedroom and do some other things around their new house. They just got possession on Friday afternoon! We went back to their apartment for a bite to eat and we had a great time just chatting and reminiscing. We haven't laughed that hard in a really long time. Let me put it this way - I left their house with no makeup on and I nearly peed my pants a couple of times. It was a great visit and we can't wait to go back in a few weeks to help them move.

Rachel stayed with my parents on Saturday (and over night since we knew we'd be getting home late) and she had a lot of fun. She can do 'Patty Cake' now by herself - it's the short version but it is cute to see. If only we could teach her to say 'Da Da' now *sigh* Poor Ron - she just won't say it - she laughs when we try to get her to say it...it's almost like she knows :)

Ron & I took Rachel to Springbank Park yesterday for a nice long walk. It was such a beautiful day & Rachel LOVES being outside. She gets so excited when I get her jacket - she starts kicking her legs and moving her arms around. It's adorable!

We were so glad that we got to visit with Aidan again yesterday. Tim & Rybeca were in London for a couple of days so we met up with them last night for dinner at Ry's parents. Tim bbq'd a kick ass dinner - steak & ribs - they were sooooo tasty!!! Anyway, Aidan is becoming quite the little man. He has grown so much - even just since we last saw him 3 weeks ago! He's now almost 15lbs and he's wearing 12m outfits! He's going to be a busy boy in a couple of months - he's already wanting to move around and jump. We lent them our jolly jumper, bouncy chair & bumbo and hopefully he enjoys them all as much as Rachel did.

Here's Ry with Aidan

I think this next picture is one of my favourites. Rachel is 8.5months old and Aidan is 7 WEEKS old in this picture yet they look much closer in age! The grandfathers were proudly holding their grand babies...and Ry's brother, Tru is in the green shirt...

We had a great visit with them but unfortunately we had to leave early because it was past Rachel's bedtime and she was getting cranky. We've learned the hard way - if you don't get her to bed as soon as she starts rubbing her eyes, you pay the price! ha ha She's not that bad but she does get over tired quickly so it's just not worth it. As soon as we got home, we changed her bum and put her to bed. She was exhausted!

Even though we had a busy weekend, it was another great one. We're really looking forward to this summer with Rachel - it's going to be a blast!!!

Time to lower the mattress on the crib

So over the past few days Rachel has been surprising us with what position she is in when it comes to morning time. This morning was no exception. She had completely turned herself around and was giggling away under her sheet...

When I flipped the sheet away from her...

That means tonight was the night to lower the mattress on the crib. I just don't want to take a chance and have her standing up in her crib one morning...or falling out of it. So Ron was a busy boy tonight...

Rachel thought it was fun to play with Daddy's tools...

After playing with the tools for awhile she decided to crawl around (still only backwards)

When she gets tired of crawling, she rolls over....and is all smiles for the camera :)

Where she eventually ended up...almost out the door!!!

So now the little pumpkin is sound asleep in her crib and hopefully will be until tomorrow morning. *knock on wood* She is still sleeping from 7/7:30pm until 7/7:30am. Ahhhh, life is great :)

Taking a break from the beautiful weather

It's been awhile since I've had time to sit down and post so I thought I'd take a few minutes while Rachel is napping to do so.

Rachel has been taking her shoes off for awhile now. It drives me crazy but what can ya do? Her latest trick is to take them off and put them in her shape sorter! What a silly goose!

I'm so happy that the nice weather is here. I've heard it's not going to last but I know it will be back sooner than later so I'm ok with that. Rachel & I spent a good part of Friday afternoon outside enjoying the sunshine. It was a little too windy to hang out on our deck so we sat on the front porch instead.

Rachel loves watching The Wiggles and her Baby Einstein movies. I usually put one of them on in the morning while I'm getting her breakfast ready. I discovered Friday that she doesn't care what position she's in when she watches tv. She will sit, lay on her belly...or even on her back!

Ron went to get Rachel up this morning and this is how he found her...on her tummy at the other end of her crib. I think it will be time to move the mattress down soon.

This picture below was taken literally seconds after she woke up...as you can probably tell!

We spent the day in the Oshawa area yesterday for a bridal shower for my cousin Trinda. It was fun and Rachel was a good girl. She spent quite a bit of time outside with Daddy & Grandad. She was even good in the car although she only slept for half an hour there and half an hour back. It all worked out though because she slept through last night (we were worried she wouldn't since she didn't nap like she usually does during the day).

Well, I hear the front porch calling my name so it's time to go back & enjoy the sunshine!

Visit with Oma & last swimming class

Yesterday was a busy day for us. Oma came down to spend the day with Rachel and then we had her last swimming class last night as well. Rachel passed the class (obviously - not too hard to do at this level - ha ha) and she got her first sticker for her Red Cross Swimming book. The report card is actually quite cute - they just check off everything she did and then write a little blurb at the bottom. All in all, we were pleased with Rachel's first report card! :)

Here are some pictures from yesterday...

Walking around with Oma

Giving "Rachel Olivia" (The Cabbage Patch Kid doll) kisses through the box. You should see all the slobber marks on the box now! :)

Rachel with some of her swimming class friends. I just love how the pool is shaped like a little fish (I know - it doesn't take much these days to excite me).

Daddy & Rachel in the pool playing with the toys one last time. Now I really can't wait for the summer. We are going to have so much in the pool!!! :)

It was a beautiful day today - a bit windy and unfortunately that means it's not a good day to go for a walk in our subdivision but Rachel & I sat out on the front porch in the sunshine for awhile. I also have the bedroom windows upstairs open to get some fresh air in here. It's so nice to get rid of the stale air!

I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already. We're off to Tyrone or someplace like that - I don't know where exactly (good thing I'm not driving) for my cousin Trinda's bridal shower. It should be fun - and it will be Rachel's first bridal shower she's been to!

Peek-a-boo

Rachel's new favourite game!! Instead of saying 'Peek-a-boo' though, we ask 'Where's Rachel?'. It is so cute to see her reaction to this! Here are some pictures from Sunday afternoon when Ron was playing with her. I just love how she's trying to hide behind the puppet on her exersaucer! Too cute!

8 month pictures

I had her pictures done a couple of days early but really - how much can she really change in 2 days? :)

The pictures turned out pretty good considering she didn't have a morning nap! Thank goodness Grandma was there to make her laugh...and to pay for the pictures, too! Silly Mommy left her bank card at home!




Hopefully the sun is shining where you are : ) Have a great day!

Happy Easter!!!

Rachel has enjoyed her first Easter so far. The Easter Bunny was at our house this morning so I helped Rachel find the eggs. Ron captured it on video so I'll try to post a little bit of that sometime this week.

Rachel trying to eat her eggs.
Look what the Easter Bunny brought me! LOTS of eggs! :)
A gift basket from Grandma & Grandad
Yummy egg!
Nice chocolate face, Rach!
Playing with one of Mommy's toys from when she was a baby.
Everything goes in the mouth!
An updated family picture. I can't believe how big Rachel is getting! She's so tall!
Grandma giving Rachel a 'horsie' ride.

Oma & Cha Cha are coming to London today for dinner so I will hopefully have more pictures to add later on.

Rachel's other bathing suit

Rachel has a few bathing suits...ok, I'll be honest - she has 5 of them. One she has outgrown already (6-12m) & one is too big for her (size 2) so now we're into the 12-18 month ones. Here's Rachel before swimming tonight...

Nice cleavage - I think she takes after me! ha ha
Rachel & Ron in the pool tonight. At least she's happy :) Now we'll just have to work on Daddy's smile. He has the tan lines downpat! ha ha

Pictures from today

I really don't have anything exciting to write about today so I thought I'd just share some pictures from last night & today.

Last night - showing off for Daddy.
Yummy...this tastes good, Mommy!
Peek-a-boo!
Happy after a diaper change :)
Rachel loves looking at the window clings on her window.

Annnnnnd....my favourite picture from today....*DRUM ROLL*.....

She's a keeper :)

Hopefully everyone has received their Easter cards in the mail by now. I've had a few phone calls & emails from people so I'm hoping they have all been delivered now! :)

A year ago today...

...we had our 2nd ultrasound. The one where you could REALLY tell it looked like a baby! I wanted to take a picture of Rachel laying down today with her hand beside her like she was in this picture but that's impossible with an active baby :)


So instead, here are some pictures from today while Rachel was playing in her room.
"Oh Mom - not ANOTHER picture?!"
ok - I HAD to post this picture because this toy makes me laugh. I find it a little disturbing actually. Hopefully it won't be one of her favourite toys! ha ha
Yummy Farley cookie! SOOO MESSY!!! : )
Taken after she was done eating her cookie.