Summer fun

Last week was finally hot enough for Bryn to try out her new paddling pool. She loved it -- splashing around and chattering away, though there must have been something weird in the water as her normal "girlie" voice suddenly turned very deep!



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It's been a long time coming...

Bryn is now a Canadian citizen and enjoyed the Canada Day festivities at the park.


It's been awhile. Too long considering I was supposed to be doing this a few times a week but things have been pretty busy around here since Bryn started walking. She's walking full time now. And by that I mean EVERY WAKING MINUTE.

If our scale is right and Girard knows how to use a tape measure she is now 23 lbs. and 29.75 inches. She's only grown an inch in height but she's put on 6 lbs. since we first saw her 5 months ago. She's an amazing little girl, no longer a baby but every bit a toddler. Sometimes we miss the baby but we're so thrilled with her progress we can't wish for the baby back.

Since it's been so long since my last newsy post I have a lot of little things (which are exciting to us, but may seem silly to others I'm sure!) to catch you up on. So to keep this short I'll do it in point form.

- She now sleeps through the night almost all the time. (Yay!)

- Well, except for the past few nights because she's teething. She now has 2 new molars and another one on the way (which will make a grand total of 11 teeth). Those molars sure are nasty little things!

- She still loves her books. She doesn't spend a lot of time with her toys but there are always books scattered all over the living room. "Mess" she says as she throws them around. When she picks up her "cee cee" (ABCs) book we always have to sing the ABCs.



She looks so much cooler than her dad when she wears his shades.




Standing in front of the fan keeping cool and saying "indy, indy".



- She never really did crawl. She scooted around on her bum for awhile but eventually just started walking. It took her about a month and a half from when she started walking with assistance to when she took off on her own but after all that practice she's a real pro now.

- She loves to dance, especially to the music that runs with credits after a TV show. It doesn't matter what show it is, anything will do!

- She still carries her wet cloth ("det dot") EVERYWHERE! If she happens to need two hands to do something she tucks the cloth under her chin or on her shoulder and holds it in place with her face.

- She loves to put things "back". After her bath at night I was always saying I had to put her things back in the cupboard. Now she has to put everything back, even the stuff I want left out!



Hanging out with her cousin Bretten...



...and her cousin Cara.




- She loves to be outside watching birds and looking for bugs. I put a ladybug on her arm one day and now whenever she sees one (even in a book) she says "bug, arm."

- She picks up her dirty clothes after her bath and walks to the bathroom to throw them down the laundry chute.

- She repeats almost everything we say. One day she and I were in the van and I'd done something stupid and said "crap". I had hard time not laughing out loud when she started yelling "rap, rap, rap" from the back seat.

- Some of her newest words are: cash (crash), etch (stretch), lemon (watermelon), ice cean, turtle, tatoe (potato), pocket, deuce (juice), doot (fruit), tuck (stuck), doodle (noodle), Sheshie (Jessie). She has quite the vocabulary. Today I sneezed and she said "bess ooo".

- She loves to give kisses. To everything. Her books, her dog, bugs (just about ended up with a ladybug up her nose one day...her aim is a bit off). Even Girard and me. Aren't we lucky?

That's all I can think of for now. I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'll post more regularly. Be on the lookout for a video of Bryn's first time in her swimming pool!





Summer is finally here...we can finally bring out the sundresses!




After a diaper change she carries the bag with the dirty diaper from her room to the back door saying "foof, foof".

The Walking Girl

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Bryn LOVES to be chased. She giggles and screams and runs like heck. Of course, once the camera comes out she's a bit quieter but it's still fun to watch.




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After taking her first steps the end of May she practiced for a few weeks before taking off on her own. Now this is what she does every waking minute.

Photos, finally

Our apologies. We have been extremely busy with daily life the last month, and have not had time to post. We hope the following photos will at least partly make up for it. No video this time, but some will be coming soon of our walking little girl. And a newsy update should follow shortly.

Enjoy.

Bryn receives gifts from the MacDonald clan of Edmonton and Calgary, and they are her favourite — new books

Here Bryn is trying to explain something to her dense dad

"Baby" arrives to kisses and hugs

Cousin Anna comes over for a visit ...

...with Nana and Pubba

Three amigos Claire, Bryn and Caia enjoy a day at the zoo

Here they are again — it's tough to get everyone looking the same way at the same time

Here Caia and Claire wonder why Bryn's hair isn't nice and thick like theirs

Bryn's Ramblings Vol. 2

Here's me in some kind of a pen they put me in when I'm outside. Actually, it's kind of nice in there, quiet, with no one bothering me.

Finally, these people are leaving me alone for awhile. Sheesh. I hear them saying all the time how they think they can't leave me alone for a second, because I might fall or do something stupid, like eat a plant (tried it, don't like it) or touch all the knick-knacks, but I don't even know what a knick-knack is, so how can I touch it? So at long last I have a few minutes to write. I've got Jessie on guard duty looking out for mom and dad, which is a laugh, because Jessie couldn't guard a wet paper bag, she's such a sap. If some big person who (or is it whom, I never know, the English language is so dumb?), if some person came to see what I'm doing, even if it wasn't mom or dad, Jessie would go up to them with that long arm that sticks out of her bum moving back and forth really fast and she would be no help at all because she wouldn't yell in that weird way she talks and warn me about anything. So right now I'm hoping mom and dad are flaked out on the couch because they are so tired. I cry sometimes in the night just to wake them up, it's kind of fun to watch them try to stay awake for the rest of the day when they are tired.

And what's really fun is bugging them when they are really tired. That's when I decide to be really busy. I'll make them play with me all day, and hold me up while I walk around the house. I wish they had a bigger house because it's getting to be so old, going to the same places and looking at the same things all the time. They seem to find it funny when I say the same words over and over again, day after day, so why fight it? It's not like I have other options. The good thing is that at least they supply me with food, but I don't want to go there, they give me this really bland stuff from little clear bottles that aren't much bigger than my foot, and the stuff all tastes the same. You can see different colours on the drawing on the bottle and different writing but I don't know why they bother, because I can't tell one from the other. So I eat this stuff, and I can smell the stuff they get to eat. Dad goes out the door, into the windy place where the birds sing, and he carries this big plate of stuff, and when he's done he comes back in and it smells just great. But do I ever get any of that? No. But I digress, I'm sorry, I get worked up when it comes to food.

I'm giving Jessie a kiss here, just making sure we're on the same wavelength when it comes to bothering mom and dad.

They took a picture of me asking for more. When I do this I get more food, so I keep doing this, and then I get more food, etc., etc. I've found parents are very easy to train.

What I was saying is that when they are so tired their mouths open really wide, again and again, that's when I make them run around after me. Like, I know I can walk all by myself, because I can stand for awhile, and then mom or dad panics, which gets me all nervous, then I have to reach for something just to keep from falling. Can't they just leave me be? If I really put my mind to it I think I could walk, which would be great if I had anywhere to go, but then I'd just go to all the same places in this house, only get there quicker. And mom and dad would be following me everywhere anyway, whether I walk by myself or get them to hold my hands while I'm walking. So like I said, what I do is on days that I can see they are really tired, I hold up my hands and make them walk me around. After awhile I swear I can hear their bones creak, as they aren't getting any younger, and when we're done they always stretch and put their hand on their back just above the crack line, or whatever you call it in this country, and they moan or grumble or say something I can't hear.

Jessie is moving now, which could mean anything. I'm trying to get her to do what I want. I drop stuff off my eating chair, just so she can have it. We have this system worked out where if I don't see mom or dad, I throw stuff off the edge with my ball-throwing hand, and Jessie waits there to eat it. I think if I keep doing this I will have Jessie eating out of the palm of my hand. So between the two of us we try to control things around here. We're starting to get good at it. But I better finish right away, because you never know when mom or dad will find me, then watch everything I do. And the really funny thing is I love it, and them, when they do that.

Bryn