Christmas Part II

Later on Christmas Day, Dave, Ambrose and I made our way back to our house and joined Nana and Papa Streit along with Uncle Gody, Auntie Naomi and cousin Emma. The kids opened their toys and we enjoyed a lasagna dinner.

Emma and Ambrose had lots of fun playing together, particularly going for rides on the lil tykes push car.

ride em cars are fun!

Christmas stockings

Boxing Day was spent just hanging out. Shirley and Emma went to the Nutcracker with friend Lou and her granddaugher Chloe.  The next day Shirley and Abby headed off to Mitchell and Ambrose and I went to my mom and dad's to visit gramma and eat some leftovers and dainties.  

Gody and Emma

Emma and Papa

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Christmas Part 1 (updated)

On December 21 and 22 had a lovely visit with Natasha, Matt and their boys Max and Isaac. They drove from Calgary to spend the holidays with Tasha's parents. It was great to see an old friend and her family. Dave had fun wrestling with the boys and Ambrose was quite pleased to play with the boys. 

Max and Isaac

On the 22nd my mom, Breanna, Ambrose and I drove to Erickson to pick up Gramma. We spent the night and the next day we visited my Auntie Darlene and Uncle Brian in Brandon. Their kids (my cousins) were in town for Christmas. Ambrose got to meet Jeri, Scott and their boys Brady and Chase from Vancouver (Ambrose was fascinated by Brady's braces); Jody and Kevin from Calgary; Tara from Vernon, BC and of course, Claire Bear with parents Moog and Janine were in from Ottawa. It was a lovely visit but unfortunately I do not have any pictures to share and I now have pictures to share (thanks for sending them Janine!)

Christmas eve was spent at my parent's house. David's parents arrived that day from The Pas and joined us for the festive feast (my mom began preparing dinner two weeks before Christmas). It was a lovely meal followed by some serious gift opening (we open our gifts on the eve).

Ambrose in his Christmas best

Jessie

With Gramma

checking out one of his new toys from Nana and Papa

With Jordan

Breanna happy in her new one piece pjs 

Dave, Ambrose and I spent the night at nana and papa's house. We awoke to discover that Ambrose received gifts from Santa! Later that morning we enjoyed fried pault, a swedish dish that is part of our Christmas tradition. Yum!

Fried pault

Ambrose enjoying pault for the first time

Taking the car for a spin after papa put it together

Having fun with papa

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December so far

loves the Christmas lights

Bizzy Bizzy Bizzy Baby!!

Observations and Milestones:

• Cut left central incisor while we were away and the right one is on the way.
• Climbing stairs and motoring around quite nicely.
• Has perfected his soft hug.
• Loves to laugh and clap his hands.
• Waves like the Queen on a float - back of hand to the crowd.
• Shakes his bum bum when the music hits.
• Likes to call out to strangers for a "HEY!"
• Very vocal. Sings with mom. Sings himself to sleep.
• High Fives are coming along nicely.

Since getting back from Mexico, we have worked hard at organizing the living room and dining room. As a result the living room is now Ambrose readied. Our friends Natasha, Matt and their two boys, Max and Isaac stayed over for a night and the living room was well tested by the 5 and 3 year old.  Ambrose is fascinated with "older" children; he watched these two rough house and play with great interest.  Isaac (the younger of the two) treated Ambrose like a little brother or cousin and let him know when he was getting in the way or being annoying.

other December highlights:
-Nana Shirley visit (attending Daddy's hockey game and visiting Fort Whyte) and visits with Uncle Gody, Auntie Naomi and cousin Emma
-lots of visits with Nana Arlette
-shopping with Auntie Brytt
-visits with friends Luna (Collin and Natasha) and Samuel (Karel and Christy and other friends)
-attending Mommy's work holiday potluck
-attending Daddy's VIA family Christmas party and hockey Christmas party
-chilling with Uncle Gord
-trimming the Christmas tree
-passed the nubbie ball back and forth with daddy three times. was almost as pleased with himself as daddy was.
-Loves the little 80's synthesizer. does bum bum dance and shakes head. just scours all the buttons while different background rythmes stop and start. Manages to get the sample song going. video to arrive soon.

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Ambrose meets Santa (plus updates on baby)

While we were shopping yesterday afternoon with Nana and Auntie Brytt, Ambrose met Santa.  The exchange was quite pleasant actually. While sitting on Santa's knee, Ambrose turned his head and looked up at Santa with much curiosity. He also grabbed a piece of Santa's beard and proceeded to play with it. We have plans to meet Father Christmas at Fort Whyte on Sunday.


Other updates...
Ambrose is now 8 months old and he weighs 23 pounds. He is busy baby, always on the move.  He loves to walk with assistance or cruise around and move between furniture and/or people (or, if they let him, the cats). He likes to throw/push toys ahead and then move towards them while playing. A favourite toy is the Fisher Price farm from Jessie. He spends equal time playing with the animals and standing up holding onto the farm (no, it does not hold his weight and he has taken some tumbles but he persists).


His new thing is to scream at the top of his lungs, usually in delight (he demonstrated this quite well while we were on the plane). He is experimenting with some new sounds and vocalizations. In fact I don't think he is ever quiet (even in a deep sleep he will sing his deep slumber song).


His interest in food has deepened just these past few days. Although he still prefers to feed himself, he is finally allowing me to feed him more than 1-2 spoonfuls in one sitting. In fact last night he ate over half a jar of organic pureed pears! He does not hesitate to let us know if he likes or dislikes a certain food. Here's the running tally for this week 
Likes: puffed wheat, rice crackers, pureed blueberries, homemade banana bread, chunks of steamed carrot and anything he can pick up and put into his mouth himself. 
Dislikes: apple sauce (really?), rice cereal, any pureed vegetable (ugh)

Mexico (7 months con't) November 15-27

Vacation destination: Ryan and Manon's casa in Chemuyil, a great little town between Playa del Carmen and Tulum. 

David and I will have to come back to this post to complete a write up that does justice to our wonderful trip.

In the meantime - and to satisfy the calls for Ambrose on the beach shots - here are some pictures of our Mexican getaway. Some of the photos were taken with Ryan or Gord's GoPro, a super cool sports cam. 

7 months

We were busy the first two weeks of November preparing for our trip to Mexico (next blog). But we managed to have some nice visits with friends and family, including my girlies, and particularly Miss T before she left.
At the beginning of the month, Ambrose weighed in at 22 pounds.
Click here for some pictures

Ambrose feeds himself mashed carrots