Guess who took two steps!

As we suspected, we are going to have an early walker. Ambrose took two steps tonight! He has been standing unassisted for a little while now and two days ago he took one small step and earlier this afternoon he was testing out his balance. Now that he has taken two distinct steps we feel the need to share!

I am not sure if we are ready for a toddler...I would prefer he remain a baby for a little while longer.

Stomach virus and other fun updates

checking out his hospital id bracelet

Upon our return from North Dakota, Ambrose came down fast and hard with a stomach flu. Suffice to say we went through many pajamas, bedding and towels. My poor parents: we were at their house - Dave did not want us home until he had time to clean post floor removal.
As a precautionary measure we ended up in emergency at the children's hospital (recommendation by Health Links nurse). Ambrose was fine and has since recovered nicely. He was kind enough to pass the bug along to my mom, dad, sister and Dave. Sorry! Dave saw the silver lining: a poor man's cleansing.

After an appropriate amount of time passed, we ended our self imposed quarantine and visited some friends. We also had Miss Beans over (she was studying for exams).

We went for his 9 month check up earlier in the week. As we suspected, he last some weight due to the virus but his height and head circumference are at the top or off of the charts. He is 77 cm or ~30 inches (2.56 ft). He weighs 22 lbs 6.8 ounces. Prior to getting sick, Dave and I were betting Ambrose was close to 25 pounds.

Here are some pictures

Kitchen floor renovation part 1

before

While Ambrose and I were in Grand Forks with my mom, Dave and his fabulous brother Gody, tore out the old disgusting kitchen tile. It was quite the job. Thanks Gody!
Dave's friend Christoff brought his friend over who happens to be a very talented contractor/house renovator and he helped to further rip out the floor and then install first two layers of a new sub floor to prepare for tiling. Needless to say, we have now hired him to complete the job. Now to pick out some tile! Decisions decisions....

new sub floor

Click here for some photos

Road trip to Grand Forks - Jan 17-19

My mom, Ambrose and I went to Grand Forks. We were there for three days and two nights and we had a fabulous time! We got nana a new bathing suit and we then hit the hotel pool! We shopped (or mostly browsed) till we dropped (great baby clothes at Target). Nana and Ambrose enjoyed waking up together!

I will have to add pictures of the trip once I transfer them from my mom's iphone.


Here are some pictures in the days leading up to the trip - Ambrose tasting grapefruit for the first time and playing with Miss Mineu.

weekend sleepover with uncle gody, auntie naomi and cousin emma

the title says it all

here are some fun pictures


observations and milestones
-Ambrose is able to stand on his own for a few seconds
-able to sign for more (but not consistently, usually he just claps his hands. If he is really wanting more he'll grunt and extend his arm and hold out his hand and kick his legs)
-likes to be funny (e.g. putting plastic pot lid on daddy's head and knocking it off and laugh hysterically)
-appears he loves meat (sorry auntie des). If offered a few bite size morsels, he will almost always pick up the meat piece first. He tolerates purees, including vegetable ones, as long as he is also able to feed himself other food at the same time.
-loves loves loves bath time, particularly playing with his bath duck (was a favourite of breanna's and jessie's)
-is absolutely fascinated by the cats (and they are so tolerant of him). unfortunately he likes to pull their tails or grab their fur
-we have had to postpone his 9 month check up so he has not been weighed since the beginning of December. He has to be at least 24 if not 25 pounds. He is thinning out a bit but he is one heavy solid mass of a baby.
-continues to love crawling all over me  but now likes to bite my shoulder, knees etc
-can crawl downstairs as well as up
-has been able to bang things together to make a noise for quite some time
-has been aware of object permanence for a while
-can walk while pushing his car down the hallway (he gets quite a bit of speed so it's almost comical how quickly he whizzes by)
-loves to sit quietly and read books. He wants 4-5 read at a time.
-likes sleeping on his tummy. During the night he will flip around like a fish: back, to tummy, head towards the wall, head toward the foot of the bed
-will kick his legs and move his body while sitting in his metoo chair to see everything on the table move and rattle about (cause and effect)
-has been saying mama quite audibly. I believe he has said dada too. He still will say nananananana when he's incredibly hungry.
-loves older kids, particularly his older cousins jessie and emma
-is an incredibly fast crawler and cruiser
-is able to play independently for stretches of time (so nice!)

First week of January

Big Guy!

Playing with cousin Jessie

The words that best describe January so far are purge and organize. We have tackled - and continue to tackle - all of our closets and storage areas. We are actually seeing some progress and Dave and I are quite encouraged. Unfortunately I experienced a purging of a different kind at the beginning of last week: stomach flu. Luckily it was a 24 hour thing and Dave and baby did not succumb to the bug.

We have also had some lovely visits with friends and family.

Here are some photo highlights.

New Year's Eve and Day, 2011

The holiday festivities continued. We headed to East St Paul to ring in the New Year with our friends Viv, Rod and their girls Reegan and Jaelyn; Christy, Karel and son Samuel; and Kiri, Mike and their children Finn and Ember. My, times have changed for us: the evening started before 6 pm and we were home before 11pm!

New Year's Day we were invited to neighbour's Barbara and Arnold's home. Our neighbourhood friends Tomoko, Todd and Ren; and Edwina, Trevor and children Miriam and Silas were also in attendance. We had a lovely time.

We're off to a nice start for 2011!

Between Christmas and New Year

It was a busy week. Here's a quick summary of what we were up to

post dinner cuddle with Tony

Tuesday we were invited to a tapas dinner party hosted by my colleague Tony and his wife Andrea and their boys Sascha and Max. We have a fabulous time: amazing food and great conversation.

Ambrose on my baby sled

Babe's 1st ski

On Wednesday we pooled our Christmas money together and bought the cross country ski attachment for our Chariot. We took it for a test ski at the Churchill parkway trail (in south osborne). We have to admit it looks pretty cool and works slick! On the same day Dave took Ambrose for a quick turn on my childhood sled. I was overjoyed that my mom kept it for all of these years.

Thursday night we had a great visit with Moog, Janine, Claire and Janine's mom Lorene. We had a lovely time visiting, eating dinner and dainties and playing a game of Settlers of Catan. Moog introduced us to the game several years ago and although we have the game ourselves, we have not played it in quite a while. I am happy to report I won! (with assistance from Janine who played for me when I had to tend to Ambrose). 

Observations and milestones:
-Ambrose was 9 months on the 30th
- can go feet first off of furniture and beds
- can clap his hands, which he does often.
- loves to eat (I pretty much feed him off of my plate but he still has his "baby food" including pureed fruits, particularly pears)
-loves to laugh and to do silly things to make you laugh along with him
-able to play independently
-loves to watch and play with other kids
-always on the move, crawling across floors and up the stairs, creeping along furniture, grabbing everything that is within hands reach.
-beginning to show that he can be stubborn and determined
-as vocal as ever


click here to see some more pictures