Child Process

Ellie's words at 20 months

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 05:52:00 +0000

For posterity, I thought I'd record some of Eleanor's current words.

Mama
Dada
Nurse (urse)
Yes (yesh)
Aye (means yes)
Teeth (she loves to brush her teeth)
Pants
Caw caw (anything with feathers)
Woof
Fish (accompanied by a swimming hand motion)
Ball
Bunny (buh-ee, especially when she watches Looney Tunes)
Guk (milk/drink/cup)
Book
Nonno
Nonna (especially when the phone rings)
Bye (usually 10 seconds after we hang up the phone)
There (this is a new one, she said it tonight when I asked where Sophia was)
Ok (one incidence of K reported by Nonno)
Sister (1x)
Kris (when looking at a photo of Kristi)

I'm sure we'll think of more, but this is a good start for now!

Halloween 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 05:07:00 +0000

We had a great Halloween this year and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

We visited the UBC Farm pumpkin patch with Mom and picked up a pumpkin for each family member.

It was one of the last beautiful days of October!

We tried to get a nice shot with the kids.

Eleanor just got squirmier and squirmier.

Until this happened.

She cheered up when we gave her a tiny pumpkin of her own.

We carved our pumpkins (dinosaurs, of course!) with some friends.

Sophia drew this Parasaurolophus and Dean carved it for her.

Dean's Stegosaurus, Holly's Tyrannosaurus Rex, Sophia's Parasaurolophus

I carved Ellie a T-Rex footprint.

Halloween night was rainy, here's the family all geared up and ready for trick-or-treating. Fortunately, Sophia's costume had built-in rain boots!

Ellie went as a crow, but it was hard to get a good photo of her wings. She loves making a "whoosh whoosh" sound and flapping them!

Sophia contemplating the rain.

Parasaurolophus pose.

Note the bony crest (aka bike fender).

Trick-or-treating with friends. Ellie got the hang of it by the end of the night.

Sophia's costume was based on Perry Parasaurolophus, a Dinosaur Train character.

Here she is posing with her Perry figurine.

Perry Parasaurolophus holding Perry Parasaurolophus.

The haul at the end of the night. Note the full-size Skittles bag in the background!

Hope you had a wonderful Halloween!

Past Halloween posts:

2011

2010

2009

2008 & pumpkins from 2008

2007

School days

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 01:24:00 +0000

Sophia started kindergarten last week and has been loving it so far. Here are a few first day of school photos!

And little sister has been no slouch in the academic department. She got her first honorary degree today!

Troublemaker #1 & Troublemaker #2

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:39:00 +0000

Sophia, March 2008, 12 months old

Eleanor, April 2012, 13 months old

Ellie's first steps!

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 19:10:00 +0000

Little Miss Eleanor has taken her first tentative steps this morning! She is now fifteen months and three days old. We didn't catch the very first steps on video, but she took two more moments later, so we've got a video to share with you. Enjoy!

Preschool graduation

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 05:04:00 +0000

Dinosaur cake

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Mon, 28 May 2012 18:22:00 +0000

Sophia, as you may have heard, loves dinosaurs! She and I made a dinosaur cake this week, just for the fun of it! We used the Betty Crocker video and instructions and customized the colour and candies as per Sophia's whims.

Sophia was thrilled with the results!

She was proud to cut out the templates by herself.

I did the icing and Sophia placed most of the candies. It was a true team effort!

Spring in Vancouver

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:42:00 +0000

Sophia helped me choose some photos from the month of May for today's post:

Silly sisters

Eleanor LOVES the swing (this is a happy face, trust me!)

Ellie found her big sister's underwear and thought it would make a great hat

We celebrated Mother's Day with brunch at the Sylvia Hotel with Mom & Dad

The Sylvia is in an amazing location right on English Bay

We had a great walk in Stanley Park and Sophia loved the Second Beach playround

She especially loved the fire engine!

With my girls on Mother's Day

Happy first birthday, Eleanor!

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:21:00 +0000

Happy first birthday to our wonderful Eleanor! She made us a family of four one year ago today and was a perfect birthday present for her big sister who turned four the day after Ellie's birth! Here's a photo review of Ellie's first year:

Ellie's newborn days, March 2011

Ellie at five months, August 2011

Eleanor with her plaque at BC Women's Hospital (it's true, she was 9lbs, 11oz at birth!)

Our sweetie with her long and wild locks

Little Miss Ellie loves books!

She loves to stand with support from furniture and we expect her to start walking within the next couple of months. The next photo shows Ellie in her new birthday dress, I'm continuing the ugly birthday dress tradition that I started with Sophia.

Ellie loves to be next to her big sister.

Can you believe I'm one already?

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Ellie getting to know Aunt Emmy

Sophie finds that Uncle Bill is always willing to read to her

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:51:00 +0000

Sophia's first dance recital

Grandpa reading "Too Many Mittens" to his granddaughters

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 03:08:00 +0000

teeth in (she's got a total of four now)

teeth out (one gone, another wiggly)

The Adventures of Polo

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I've wanted to write a library book of the week post in the style of inchmark's blog for a long time. When it was time to return The Adventures of Polo to the library (we'd renewed it twice already), I knew this was the book I was waiting for.

The Adventures of Polo is a wordless book that takes you on Polo's fantastic journey from his little island home to worlds unknown. He brings along his very helpful backpack that contains items like an umbrella to help him keep his balance on tightropes. He's very prepared.

The book is full of surprises (what you think is an island becomes a whale) and it's a real page turner.

Polo eventually leaves Earth and meets some little green guys on the moon. Fortunately, he has his lantern that he can fill with phosphorescent mushrooms so he can find his way through the sublunar tunnels. All in a day's work for Polo.

Personally, I love it when he takes an elevator in a tree and finds a group of monkeys partying on a platform that eventually takes off into the sky. That's my kinda party.

Happily, all ends well when Polo eventually returns to his idyllic island home.

Sophia loved this book and after we'd "read" it together a few times, I heard her whisper the entire story to herself. The good news is that Regis Faller has illustrated several more Polo books, so we'll be enjoying this series for months!

Halloween 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:18:00 +0000

This year we carved Shaun the Sheep pumpkins and Sophie loved how they turned out. Shaun the Sheep is one of her favourite shows and it's great for adults too (especially adults who are kids at heart!). From left to right, we have Shaun the Sheep, little Timmy, Bitzer the dog, and one of the pigs.

I carved Shaun and this is my best attempt at his lopsided smile (it's hard!).

Dean carved Bitzer and the pig. But his real job was ...

Costume creation!

Dean made Sophie's entire costume this year and he did a wonderful job! She wanted to be a skeleton, so he made her a custom costume using fabric paint on a black outfit. He drew all the bones himself and then cut the shapes out of freezer paper to create a stencil. Then he painted in the bones with fabric paint. We used the steps from the Freezer Paper Skeleton tutorial on Instructables. It took way longer than anticipated, but the results speak for themselves!

Ellie was a cow for her first Halloween (thanks to Mom and Dad for the cowbell!). Our poor little cow had a cold and didn't have a great night, but was a trooper during trick-or-treating and slept in the Ergo most of the time.

Sophie and her friend Sophie (the blurry cheeseburger) went trick-or-treating together and lasted for nearly an hour and a half on a windy, chilly night.

For the first time, Nonna and Nonno were in Vancouver to see Sophie on Halloween. It was great!

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:13:00 +0000

The girls with their Dad. Above, Sophia and Dean work on her skeleton costume. Below, a night-time cuddle with Ellie.

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:35:00 +0000

Sophia ready for her first bike ride

Eleanor was fascinated by Aunt Kristi's spinning pumpkin game

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:23:00 +0000

Happy six month birthday, Ellie!

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:48:00 +0000

Our little Ellie is half a year old today and I thought I'd give you an update on Ellie at six months. As you can see, drool is a major part of our lives!

All the drooling has shown some results! Ellie's got one tooth (it popped through about a week ago).

She's started "crawling" but doesn't lift the front half of her body up, so it looks like she's doing downward facing dog (she is a Kitsilano baby, after all!).

She's made some major strides in length and weight since her one month photo shoot. As you can see, she is longer than her baby quilt now and previously she had tons of room to grow! I'll get her weighed soon, but our guesstimates from the old "weigh yourself with and without baby" trick have her at around twenty pounds.

She's nearly sitting up (prop pillows were used to get this shot), she giggles and coos non-stop, she'll be starting solid food any day now, and she truly lights up our lives.

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:09:00 +0000

At Sarah & Dylan's wedding

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 04:31:00 +0000

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:22:00 +0000

Sometimes you just have to eat dessert first.

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:39:00 +0000

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:29:00 +0000

I made a face with my sandwich! (note raisins are glued on with yogurt)

First family of four self-portrait

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:16:00 +0000

{this moment}

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 23:19:00 +0000