It's summertime!

And boy is it hot! So Katie had to spend some time in the pool she got for her birthday. She had a great time, and cried when it was time to get out.



Then we went inside and she had a (unopened) popsicle to chew on because her molars are really bugging her. Poor kid.

Where did my baby go?

And where did this toddler come from?

Katie no longer crawls. She has better things to do, apparently. She figured out how to stand up without holding onto anything a few days ago, and since she can carry more with her hands in the air, who needs crawling? Too cute to see those short little legs cruising around the house. Even cuter when she starts dancing to whatever music might be playing. Shaking her little bum around. Very, very cute. Time to start looking for the Salsa Tots schedule.

She's 1!

Some pictures and a brief update.
We now have a 1 year old. She walks, almost runs, and stands up all by herself. She weighs 19.5 pounds and is 29.5 inches tall.

Found my Grampa!

Pounded on my new drum.

I learned that if I make this face after I take a drink, everyone laughs.
Photo credit: Ken L.

A tunnel!
Photo credit: Ken L.

Playing with my new octopus on the way to the zoo.

When I was at the zoo, I petted a pony.
This one is way closer to my size than that one we have at home.
Photo credit: Ken L.

When we got home from the zoo, we found Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa at our house!
I was very excited to see them.
Photo credit: Ken L.

We had a big barbeque with lots of friends over, and we took this picture of 4 generations of our family.
Photo credit: Kim W.

A few days later, we went for a walk and Grammy tried on the wrap.
That made me laugh, it was fun.

Then Grammy's back got sore, so Mommy let me ride on her back for the rest of the walk. I guess Grammy's not used to carrying somebody.
Photo credit: Karen L.

We also got some other visitors for a little while. They're here to get more used to seeing people. The big one is Shalamar, she's Jack's mom, and the little guy is named Gilbert, he's Jack's half brother. They're doing great, and Charlie is loving the company.

Funny baby story

Katie's cousin Jalina comes over once in a while after school to play with Katie so I can get some work done. Usually renos. They always have a great time, and Katie wants nothing to do with me when Jalina's around. (Oddly reminiscent of a certain sister of mine when she was about the same age) Well, today must've been more fun than most, because after I put Katie to bed she was grinning and giggling in her sleep. So very cute.

Arts & Crafts

another sick day

First she snuggled with me for a bit, then she snuggled with Bear while I got some lunch.
Then she snuggled with me some more, except when I got up to take a picture.

She slept on my chest for about 6 hours today, poor little bug. She was feeling so much better this evening though, thank goodness. She even got down to play on the floor for a while.

Adventures

I just realized that I forgot to write about another of Katie's new adventures. Sunday before last, we all went out with Uncle Scott and Uncle Mark in Scott's boat. Katie got to use her new lifejacket, and she had a great time. She didn't test out the lifejacket, but she got wetter than I did! Andrew dipped her feet in when we were out on the lake, and I was helping her "jump" in when we were back at the dock. She had a blast going in over and over again, barely letting me have time to rest my arms from lifting her. She went in all the way up to her armpits! Sadly, no pictures, because I misplaced my camera for a few days there.

Sick baby.

The only good thing about a sick baby is she snuggles.

First she snuggled with me.


Then I went to the grocery store and came home to find this.

One year ago

Give or take.

Wowzers

Sometime between 2pm yesterday and 9pm today, Katie sprouted a new tooth. This one's not just barely cut either, it's quite a bit out already. Yeouch. Her molars are giving her a bit of trouble though, so I'm not sure she noticed it. Poor kid.

Someone should fire me.

We've been pretty busy the last few weeks, but I should've been able to get on here and post a couple pictures at least. Here's what we've done.

We got the garden in 2 weeks ago, but my pickling cucumbers died so I need to go buy a few started plants for that. The watermelons and 3 of my tomato plants didn't make it either, but we'll make do. We have potatoes, corn, beans, peas, summer squash, pumpkins, lemon cukes, beets, lettuce, radishes, cauliflower, sunflowes, herbs, strawberries, and lots and lots of tomatoes. Good thing we like tomatoes.

One of Andrew's cousins got married May 26, and Katie and I went and had a great time. Andrew couldn't make it because of work, unfortunately. I met a lot of relatives that I hadn't met before, and saw lots that I had. It was great.

Our siding got finished, our yard is mostly cleaned up, and we're just waiting on a garage door now.

Katie isn't walking yet, and now refuses to try taking steps either, she just goes limp when you try to get her to do so. So we have a few more days before she starts taking off on us, I guess. She has 4 teeth all the way in, one halfway, and one that keeps poking through and going back in. And it looks like the next one will be a molar. That's the giant bump I feel on her gums anyway. Still no words that we can understand, but she tells us big stories so we're anxiously waiting for clarity.

Bailey and Morgan are doing great, in perfect health and enjoying the summer weather. Charlie is doing better and healing well, but has a long road ahead of him. We had him back to the vet on Monday and it looks like we'll be into October before the skin completely closes over the wound. Big brat got out of the fence today and took himself for a walk in the neighbor's field. I happened to catch him dancing down the road when I was mowing the grass and ran back for a halter and then out to find him. He was rolling in the dirt, of course, because I had just brushed him this morning. Turned right around and came home with me though, thank goodness.

And now, pictures!

Katie's first car. She'll climb on and off this thing for hours, she also likes to walk along pushing it, it gives her just enough support to stay up.
Pictures from the wedding:

Katie & Grandpa Clayton

This one was too precious to pass up, Katie & Aunty Diane

Soaking up some sun.

Getting so big! She's more of a toddler and less of a baby every day.

And today, with her new favorite toy. She thinks the insides are quite good too.

Salsa class.

You've seen the maraca, you've seen a smiley baby in a t-shirt.
Now we have a picture of our class!

Salsa Baby!

Too bad our baby is in such a bad mood all the time. Really makes things hard on us, you know?

She's keeping me on my toes, that's for sure. For Mother's Day, we went for a weenie roast with a bunch of the family, then played baseball in the front yard. I'm told that Canadian baseball is played with a tennis ball, and is a full contact sport. At least, that's what my Brother in Law says. Ha!

The garden is almost ready, I'm more than halfway done hauling manure in there, then I have to spread it more or less evenly and till it in. I even have the tiller sitting in there. Hoping to get to that tomorow, but maybe Friday depending on how Katie is sleeping tomorrow. Plants are all ready and itching to go, they've been out on the porch for a few days enjoying the sun. But we're supposed to get pretty cold overnight on the weekend, so we won't put them out just yet. I repotted my avocado tree today too, it's looking happier already. It was fairly cramped in the last one, so this new pot is quite a bit bigger. Hope it lasts a while, I won't be able to lift a bigger pot.

Charlie is doing much, much better. His leg looks great today, I'm excited about that. Okay, it still looks disgusting, but compared to what it was, looks very good.

Look at her go!

Renos progress

First, I apologize for the pictures of pictures, my scanner doesn't work with this computer and the only pictures I have of before are prints.

Here is the south side of the house. We (Andrew) took down the roof of the screened porch (on the left) last fall, and the two of us dismantled the floor last week. Found a real estate paper under there from 1983. The porch wasn't built right, so parts of the floor were rotting. Only around the supports, no big deal, right? The good lumber we kept for other projects.
View of the west side of the house, get a good look at that porch.


After the siding guys had removed the old tin, after the windows were replaced, before we took down the porch floor.

Nearly finished/finished pictures are coming, but I have to remember to take them when it's light out. Also coming, before & after of most of the rest of the house.

Finally.

The much anticipated tooth #5 has finally broken through, to be shortly followed by #6, I think. She's still miserable. Poor kid.

Video overload.

Took a bunch of video in the last 2 days, just getting around to editing. Gotta cut it down to the good stuff.

First up, Superbaby! Apparently this game is a big hit. Notice the cowboys and horses on her Superbaby cape.



Next up, cute baby noises! The video isn't all that great, but the audio makes up for it. We have a ball with a sand pocket at the bottom so it wiggles. She loves this ball. Most recently, she's taken to kicking it around the living room (while she's holding our hands, of course), but we haven't got a video of that yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENMQawY09Yw

And number 3, our one baby band. Who needs toys when you have a pot and a wooden spoon?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myqXkHAdyKQ

My teething baby is a CRANKPOT.

But you wouldn't know it to look at her.

I'm not ready for this.

Our weekend.

We went to see Ray Price on Saturday night. Katie slept through a good portion of it, and everyone was much impressed by how well behaved she was. I actually think they may just have been grateful that I took her for walks in the aisleways when she got cranky, so she was quiet and not distracting anyone. We spent the night in Edmonton, as the drive home would've made Katie a very unhappy camper. Arrived home to find Charlie caught in the fence. He's okay, the wounds are much less severe than we thought they would be. After consulting with the vet, we feel that we can care for him adequately here, but we'll follow up if we need to. He's going to have some scars, but he won't have any lasting damage besides that.

Katie now walks while only holding one of our hands. Andrew's mom said last night "can she do that?" Well, she is doing it, so I guess she can.
She is finally interested in eating something besides breastmilk, but only if it comes from my plate. Over the weekend, we had salmon & steamed broccoli, rye bread, yellow zuccini, roasted red pepper & black bean soup, and I can't remember what else. And she would yell at me if I didn't have a steady supply of little bites for her. Good grief. So cute watching her chow down on salmon & broccoli though. And surprisingly (or not, since she seems to take after her Aunty Lindsay) she doesn't get messy. One piece at a time is all she'll pick up. Of course, she still packs her mouth full, but she only puts in one piece at a time. Who needs bibs?

Today we gardened.

Katie sat in the stroller (still not thrilled about this ground thing) and laughed at me while I got all dirty. It was nice to get in there and start cleaning up. Hopefully we can keep on top of it this year, last year we got distracted by a cute baby.

Here is what my garden looks like right now. Kinda rough.
This is the work I did today, plus raked some more. This section is raked and the weeds have been pulled, then raked again to get the pieces out.
Here is my garden, for those of you who haven't seen it in person. That's Bailey by the near corner.
My indoor garden, thinned and in bigger pots. I'm planting the second round this week, I hope to have a dual harvest.
Bailey found her bones now that the snow has melted. She's very excited about that. She's been dragging this thing around the yard for 3 days.

And Morgan decided to get out of bed during the daylight today and visit with us. She's been busy at night hunting, so she hasn't been budging during the day.

Did someone say Spring??

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

Our order came in!

I ordered a maraca for Katie at our last Salsa Babies class, and it finally came in today. They were seriously backordered. She was so excited. She loves it. So, of course, I had to take some pictures. She's been hauling it around the house with her.
Then she went to play with H & S again. She LOVES them. I am told that there were crawling races around the house, lots of climbing over legs and pillows, and all the poker chip towers she could knock over. What more could a girl ask for?

Her shirt says "Here comes trouble". I thought it was fitting.

There is no justice in the world.

The mosquitos are back. I squished one yesterday. I am not happy with this turn of events because I absolutely hate mosquitos. I mean seriously, we still have snow on the ground. What the heck?!

Springtime!

Well, most of our snow is gone now, so I took Katie out to play in the grass.

She was not impressed.

So big!

Look what I can do!

picture post

Catching up on some of the pictures I've taken recently.

Swimming with Daddy.
4 teeth!
And again.
If i could just get this down...

Let me outta here! I want to help cut Bailey's hair!

Katie and her friend Lazare. He's a month older than her.
And this one's from this morning.

Attacked!!

Some of you know that our neighbor's dog was coming over here for visits and marking our territory as his own. Well, we finally got that resolved by chasing him down the road yelling at him every day for a week. Then their cats started coming over. I half suspect these cats aren't being fed, but they also mark territory and I don't want them here. They, however, don't run down the road when you chase them, they just go up a tree. So it's proving to be more difficult to get rid of them. I think that after yesterday though, we may be rid of them for a while.

Yesterday afternoon, I scared the black one away from Morgan's bowl twice (the black one comes here more often). Apparently he was just biding his time when I didn't see him again. We got home from visiting friends and let Bailey out, then a minute or two later heard an awful commotion coming from the side of the garage. First we though she'd cornered a coyote, but thought better when we remembered what a chicken she is. So we went to look, and the fighting was coming from the doghouse. We called Bailey and she jumped out, quickly followed by the black cat, who disappeared into the bush.

Bailey won't attack a cat, and she hasn't bothered these cats when they've been here before, so we figure she was the one who got attacked. I imagine the cat was in the doghouse when Bailey went in and Bailey scared him and he attacked her. Then she had to defend herself, of course, because she won't stand for that. But no scratches on Bailey and I haven't seen that cat all day.

Swimming baby

I am a slacker.

I've been lazy. I haven't posted here as much as I should be, thinking I could placate you all with cute pictures and videos. And then I slacked off on those as well. So here's a brief update before I go fix supper.

Katie is now nearly 9.5 months old. She crawls like lightning, but no independent walking just yet, thank goodness. She does race along the furniture like nobody's business, using only the slightest pressure that tells me that she doesn't really need the balance, she just thinks she does. Okay by me. She thinks she's very clever too. No real words yet either, but she sure babbles a lot. She likes to play pat-a-cake with Grandma, and she's recently learned that she can THROW! So she does, anything and everything she can lay her hands on gets thrown. She especially likes to throw fridge magnets.

Andrew is back to his slightly slower schedule where he's home for equal time as he's away. We went for a couple months with seeing him a lot less, but that's over again for now as spring is hitting us full force. He's still irritated at his truck because it keeps breaking for no apparent reason. Seeing as it's the same part that keeps breaking, you'd think that the dealership doing the repairs could figure out what's breaking it, but alas that is not to be.

I am itching for spring to be here full force. Katie and I have been swimming a fair bit, and we took Andrew with us the last time. Then we got distracted by the local rec league volleyball finals, but we hope to swim again tomorrow. I also leave her with our friends H & S on Thursday nights when Andrew is away, and I swim by myself. And we're starting a new round of Salsa classes this week too.

The house is coming along. Not so much going in the way of renos now that the windows and doors are finished, but the siding will hopefully be done next month. I'm in the process of decluttering the boxes we've been storing for 3 years and am very excited about my progress so far. I've thrown out 2 40gal bags of junk and taken 2 of those same bags to the local 2nd hand shop as donations. I also have a rubbermaid tub full of things I'm hoping to try to sell as soon as I can get some pictures edited and uploaded. We hope to start painting again soon, once it warms up enough for us to open windows again.

The critters are doing well. Morgan got stepped on by Charlie the other day, but as she was running and jumping just moments afterward with no apparent pain, I think he only got her belly skin. Scared me a minute though, maybe she's learned not to play under the horse. He didn't mean to, I was cleaning his feet and he stepped backward to re-balance when I put his foot down. She just got in the way. Bailey got a haircut and a bath last night, that's why the laughter and bouncing in the video of last night. The mad bath dash. Jose is Jose. He swims. Everytime someone comes over they say "is that fish still alive?" And I say "he was when I fed him this morning." And every morning he's still alive when I feed him. He's just not very exciting, I guess.

Funny video.

Bailey got a haircut and a bath today. Katie loved it.